Acceptance
by anhedoniac
Summary: Acceptance, that's the very thing that all people crave for. We need acceptance to feel good about ourselves and our view of the world. However, what if a certain character did not receive the acceptance of his peers and village? What would become of him and what is this vision of the future he has? Slow build to Naru/Anko. Update 1/14: Chapter 3.
1. Pilot: No Clemency

This story was once uploaded on here under a different name but I have permission to re-do the story from the original author. Too many responsibilities in his personal life prevented him from continuing the story. Now onto the pilot chapter

"Human Talk"

_'Thoughts'_

**(Period of Time)** indicates a scene break

***1 year ago*** Flashbacks

**Jutsu**

* * *

**_Chapter 1: No Clemency_  
**

I hope everybody enjoys this story. I realize that this character won't be for everybody but I encourage you to approach this Naruto with an open mind. I'm trying to make his character as realistic as possible. I'll explain how in the second chapter.

Ten years ago, the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked Konohagakure and decimated the village. The village could be repaired but the lives of many were unable to be repaired due to death in the families of many. The civilians lost many of their loved ones during the rampage of Kyuubi but even the great clans of Konoha such as the Hyuuga, Akamichi and the Nara lost their loved ones during this event, or as the clan heads would say "able bodies". All that was left of these people were the memories that they left behind in the mortal realm. The Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato was also lost during the war against Kyuubi as he sealed half of the Kyuubi's chakra into his only son Uzumaki Naruto. Or at least he thought he did.

In actuality, Uzumaki Naruto still obtained a little under half of the other chakra not meant to be in his body. Uzumaki Naruto was a special creature with four chakras (yin and yang from Kyuubi, Minato and Kushina's) sealed within him and would be looked upon as a special child by the village, in a negative connotation. Currently, the twelve-year-old child is residing within an apartment in some of the slums of Konoha. Naruto is currently sleeping at midnight, just like any other adolescent of his age around the city of Konoha is doing. However, Naruto has the burden of never being able to have any sort of "meaningful rest" no matter what state he is in. Any time that he goes to meditate or even sleep he is always affected by disturbed memories of the past. He can remember everything that has happened before when he was younger.

Naruto suffered abuse at the hands of the villagers. Every child at some point in their life should be able to go to a dream as a place of solace and happiness but the afflictions and tribulations of the past are too vivid for Naruto's fragile mind to ever forget. When Naruto sleeps he sees the hateful stares of the citizens of Konoha, telling their children to never associate with him ever again. He feels the mirth showed by others when it was announced that he had failed the academy test both the first and second time. He remembers the countless times that he was rejected, rejected again and rejected once more by the people.

Villagers heard about the third Hokage's decree that Naruto will be trained to be a shinobi and took it to heart with gusto to make sure that Naruto never made genin. Although most of the abuse was through the verbal rejection of the jinchuriki, there was a few times that Naruto suffered an attack at the hands of the villagers. These however, were a rare occurrence because a perfectly rational person was scared of having to face Morino Ibiki and his interrogation methods. The verbal assaults, hateful glares and outright rejection were harder for the "authority" to figure out than physical attacks that left behind valuable evidence of the attacker.

Naruto's constant routine of pacing around, trying to lay down to sleep/meditate and then pacing around again was happening again. Naruto finally laid down around 2-3 AM and passed out.

**(The Next Day)**

Naruto woke up to see the sun shining knowing that he would have to go through the same cycle everyday. Long ago Naruto abandoned his happy-go-lucky attitude that only brought more attention to himself. Naruto also through observational learning realized that the color orange put a giant target on his back. He left both of these childish thoughts behind, switched to the color black (as it was his second favorite color before and now his favorite) and changed his demeanor. His new attitude bordered on brooding but was more avoidant than any other term that anybody else knew.

The day became so predictable that Naruto could be labeled a psychic if he was paid ryo to declare what would happen in his life and when it would happen. He knew that walking to the shinobi academy was one of the hardest parts of the day because he would be stared at as he walked there. Unfortunately he did not know any major shinobi arts yet but could run away from people with great ease. Naruto's stories of outrunning both the Konoha police force and the ANBU were well known. For Naruto, this was a problem as he was always running from people instead of having people comfort him and by giving him the perception of being in a group.

Naruto was walking to school when he saw the dangerous looks of chunin level shinobi and the hateful glares of the civilians that despised him. Little did Naruto know, it was because the monster inside of him took the lives of their precious loved ones. Naruto wanted to desperately sprint in order to separate himself from the hateful glares and implied death threats that were aimed at him. However, a voice inside of Naruto's head plus his gut feeling was contradicting this thought and told him to walk slowly and not acknowledge these things. This could be described as a psychological war between the pariah of the strongest village in the land and the denizens of it.

**(Konoha Shinobi Academy)**

Naruto entered the room just as many of the other students did, quietly taking his seat and waiting for class to begin. Naruto was appreciating this year of shinobi training because he did not have a corrupted teacher wanting to teach him 'special techniques' that ended up being nothing more than a farce. Umino Iruka was the first teacher he could even label as caring about the well-being and the academic life of Uzumaki Naruto. Under Iruka, Naruto had seen his grades soar to top tier of the scholastic year beside Uchiha Sasuke and Aburame Shino. The new rookie of the year scale had changed and was now graded cumulatively from the beginning of their academy years instead of the last year.

Under this new system, Sasuke was already the rookie of the year and nobody could prevent him from reaching the pinnacle of success among fresh genin. This accomplishment could be considered a farce to the jonin and chunin because they knew the truth about the new system. The new system was put in place to boost Sasuke's confidence by giving him the rookie of the year honor.

Naruto would have to settle for second and the only obtainable goal for him. Naruto was currently in fourth in the rookie of the year standings behind a civilian named Gin (book smart only) and Shino Aburame (lacked some of the basic taijutsu skills).

Iruka arrived in the room just after all the students had entered and was ready to teach on the subject of today's lecture. Naruto had learned to pay attention to the lectures as well, just for the important material instead of listening to the full thing, as some students were able to. Naruto wished that every ticking moment could be a field test in the wilderness instead of tedious and monotonous lectures inside of a closed off classroom.

_'I have enough time being closed off to the world. I live my whole life closed off to the world and unable to even set foot outside at most hours of the night and sometimes even during the day.'_ Thought Naruto as Iruka was droning on about some principal in shinobi lifestyle. Alas, that was the curse of being Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto might have a great reserve of chakra and a ninjustu juggernaut but he had no social life or friends to rely on for emotional purposes.

The rest of the class had varied reactions to Iruka's lectures. People such as Shino Aburame and Gin were listening intently to the lecture while others such as Shikamaru Nara were sleeping. Iruka finally reached the limit of lecture time and dismissed the students for lunch. Naruto was one of the final students to leave the classroom. As he left the classroom, he saw Shikamaru still sleeping while Akamichi Chouji was trying to wake him up, and Haruno Sakura trying to get Sasuke to eat lunch with her.

_'They all live their respective happy lives, and I am unable to live with these things. I cannot be a normal part of society for some reason. Every friend I try to make is carried away from me in a whirlwind of hate.'_ Thought Naruto grimly as he exited the classroom in search of a quiet place to go spend time. A requirement for that place would be that he would have no contact with the rest of civilization if possible.

Naruto did not have money to eat lunch so for one hour he would be able to train or do as he pleased. Often he would attempt to meditate or learn basic jutsu in order to advance in his class ranking. Naruto was still puzzled at his problem with meditating and why some force was distorting his chakra flow as he meditated, making a peaceful process turn into chaos and despair.

Naruto walked into a grass opening and decided that he wanted to train a bit today instead of attempting to relive his childhood with painful memories by meditating. While all of this sounds bad, Naruto had made some progress with meditating, as the intensity of the nightmares and visions were becoming more diluted than when he first started meditating.

Naruto started with the basic training exercises after stretching and making sure his body was able to do physical activity. Naruto took out some old kunai and shuriken and planted targets ingrained in his mind on certain objects and precisely where he would need to hit. He began throwing at the targets one by one, he only missed two targets but he hit every other spot with near perfection. Naruto was getting better slowly at the ninja arts but he was not the only person who had seen his development.

Up in a small tree nearby was one pale-eyed girl who had her lunch and was eating it while watching Naruto go through his practice routine. Hyuuga Hinata had started this habit a long time ago, watching Naruto until about ten minutes were left to get to the classroom and then left before Naruto could sense, see or even know she was previously there.

However, one thing was for certain. Naruto knew that Hinata was watching. Naruto didn't want conflict with one of the major clans in Konoha, so he left her alone. He couldn't run away either because she would track him down with her eyes and watch him closely again. The only positive that Naruto knew, is that Hinata thought he didn't know.

Hinata had committed the fatal sin that every shinobi had begun to do to Naruto lately, underestimate him. Naruto learned another thing about shinobi lifestyle, get the opponent to underestimate you if possible.

Hinata still believed Naruto was bad at sensing chakra but in reality he had improved dramatically with fundamental skills. He knew where she was in the trees but did not acknowledge that she knew he was there. Naruto could try to trick himself that she wasn't there by not acknowledging her. It never worked but Naruto was stalwart, and always tried this tactic. It was one of the reasons that he never felt comfortable, even when training, which was one of his favorite things to do.

Underestimation was one of Naruto's favorite things to use as an advantage because was psychological. One could say it provided a bigger psychological advantage than a Nara or Yamanaka special clan technique. Naruto continued to leave Hinata to her devices because it could come into effect later in his life where he could use it as an advantage.

That advantage, coupled with the conflict he did not want with the Hyuga clan, was the full reason behind him not acknowledging her presence. He prayed to Kami that Hinata would never bring her other friends with her to watch him train, the last thing he needed was more eyes watching him.

And besides, Naruto would like to communicate with as little of Konoha as possible because of what has happened to him in the past. There is a reason he has become avoidant over the past few years. If Naruto had to answer truthfully, he would say it was the village's fault.

_'It is not like she likes me anyway; she just acts weird around me so I see her as somebody different than anybody else. She is the heiress for one of the most powerful clans in Konoha, it would bring the heiress even more popularity to be able to crush me and make fun of me for some reason. That is how Sakura got so popular and that is how Hinata is seeking popularity. She probably is watching for something to make fun of behind my back. If I don't pay attention to her I could potentially master this jutsu'_ Thought Naruto as he was deciding on what he would do for the remainder of the period of free time he had left.

Naruto focused back in on his training as he only had 35 minutes left until class began again. In a hasty decision he decided to try the technique he had started to work as part of his preparation for being a shinobi.

Naruto began searching for chopped logs he could use for his experiment with a jutsu. He found 5 pieces of logs and he stacked them 3 on the bottom and 2 on the top. This formed a miniature pyramid so that he could practice his technique. He jumped away from the logs and backed up a sizable distance before flipping through seals.

**Futon: Daitoppa** (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)

A gust of wind ripped from behind Naruto and sped its way towards the logs. The wind impacted with the logs knocking the top 2 logs over with one of the bottom side logs.

'_It's still not completely perfected, but it will work for now. I can use this in close combat but its not going to be a great technique from a distance until I master the technique more'_ thought Naruto to himself as he went over to pick up the logs and try the jutsu again.

One observer was not pleased at what just happened. The wind had startled a daydreaming Hinata so much that she nearly fell off her perch in the small tree, which she was watching Naruto through. Hinata had to pull herself back up onto the tree after Naruto started using the wind release technique in order to maintain her position or else risk being seen by Naruto.

_'I can't let that happen again. It would be so embarrassing if Naruto-kun caught me watching him doing his training that nobody knows about. He might never like me again'_ thought Hinata worriedly as she was now back on top of her perch on the tree watching Naruto train.

Naruto continued with his wind technique, as the training wore on he began to lose stamina and the technique began to get weaker and weaker and not before long the jutsu stopped knocking down the logs and simply brushed up against them. Hinata disappeared back to class as Naruto stopped knocking the logs down.

_'Naruto stopped using the technique effectively. I am so happy that Naruto is able to use a technique like that but he needs to conserve his stamina better. Hopefully he is not that tired when we get back to class'_ she thought as she began walking back to class now a safe distance away from where Naruto was training.

_'Good Hinata is gone, now I can really try this'_ thought Naruto as he felt her presence leave.

**Futon: Daitoppa**

Naruto felt a surge of wind from behind him come across and knock all the logs over and even sweeping the logs a further distance before they all came to a halt on the soft grass.

"I had a feeling that would work, all the training has paid off. While it is not fully complete, it is mostly perfected. A little bit longer and I'll be able really see how much damage this jutsu can do." Said Naruto to nobody but himself. Naruto began to develop a habit of talking to himself since he was little.

Naruto had bluffed Hinata the whole time; he did not put as much chakra as he needed to in the technique in order for it to be as powerful as possible. Naruto knew that Hinata better than all of the other academy students saw how powerful he actually was and did not underestimate him at all.

The more the other students underestimated him then the better of an advantage he had and the easier the better Naruto knew. So with Hinata watching him everyday it allowed him to put less chakra into the jutsu in order for him to master the technique on a small scale and then increased the chakra output to perform the jutsu on a larger scale. This had now worked and was an effective method for learning new jutsus.

Naruto began walking back to class satisfied, the looks from the other students did not affect him as much as they usually would. Naruto would often get anxious and then angry at the prospect of both younger students and older adults glaring at him like he did something in the past to them. Naruto began just to live with it although he was not happy how the villagers treated him. He just began avoiding the villagers in order to avoid the glares and whispers that always seemed to shadow him when he walked through a sector of the village.

After Naruto had been walking for a little bit, he finally arrived at the academy where he entered with about five minutes left and took his seat in the back, with nobody around him.

Naruto began thinking to himself how he discovered his affinity for the wind element. When Iruka began teaching about the five different elements Naruto became fascinated with the elements and how they interacted with each other. He began wondering about the strengths, weaknesses and how they could be used with each other for combo attacks.

This type of thinking extinguished another common stereotype about Naruto, that he was a complete dumbass. Naruto was far from that but due to his previous hyperactive nature he was not able to completely grasp what being a shinobi was about. The people of Konoha helped Naruto as the more hyperactive he became, the more he was despised by them. So Naruto one day acted a lot more quiet and avoidant as an experiment and it worked out for the better. Ever since that day Naruto's personality completely changed and his awareness became better because he was able to observe and pay attention instead of trying to crave attention, thus giving it to him.

Back to the original story, Naruto asked Iruka how to find out which element was the right one for him. Iruka said that once he graduated from the academy he would find that out. Naruto then used his prowess for stealing materials and stealth in order to steal a basic technique from all the different elements. He then tested his results.

Naruto found out that two of the elements worked rather successful while the other three were completely blunders. Wind was the strongest of the jutsu and water was the other element that he had somewhat of an affinity with. The water jutsu was decent but it would need a lot of practice to master where the wind jutsu worked out better and would not need as much time to master as the water jutsu. Naruto was pleased at this result as wind was a long-range combat style element but could virtually be used for anything.

Naruto awoke from his thoughts as every person had now assimilated back into the classroom. Naruto was still alone in the back of the classroom, just how he wanted it. He would be able to pay attention without having someone glare at him and him being uncomfortable with it. Iruka began walking into the classroom and right to the center of his teaching space with the middle of the chalkboard behind him.

"Well the year is almost over and this is the last year of academy learning for most of you. This means you will either be dumped from the shinobi system or becoming fresh genin" Iruka began his lecture.

Many yelps of excitement could be heard across the classroom. Many overactive imaginations were now working on picturing on how it would be like to be a shinobi of Konohagakure. All the students were now interested in what Iruka was going to say, something that was now a rarity with Iruka's lectures as the students had grown of age.

"Before you can do this, you must pass a test. This test will involve two portions of it; a written test and a field examination. Both of which are going to place on the last day of school in two days."

Now the students had all hushed down, and some even groaned (led by Kiba Inuzuka) because of the word 'test'.

"The field examination will consist of portions that will test your abilities in the field of taijutsu and ninjutsu. This will cover what we have learned in class but if you have learned extra-curricular material now would be the time to show it for you to pass" stated Iruka.

Some students were beginning to become nervous because of extracurricular activities. Each student had some knowledge but outside of Sasuke, no one had extra-curricular knowledge that they knew of. Some were beginning to learn clan techniques but nothing was truly deemed "effective" among those people yet. One blonde haired boy in the back smirked though at this, it might be time that his C-ranked wind ninjutsu became usable in battle for him. It didn't have to be perfect to use it against another academy student; hell it just had to be roughly half efficient to do so. He didn't need to put all the chakra he needed to into the jutsu.

"After that you will be placed in teams by the Hokage and the high ranked shinobi of the village based on overall team mechanics. This will be the last chance for some time for you to work with some of your peers. You might not see some of your peers for the rest of your life because either of death in battle or because they drop out of the ninja system" Iruka continued lecturing.

One civilian student turned around and glared at Naruto when Iruka mentioned the fact that some people might never have to see others again. Naruto began panicking because he might become the focal point of attention with this if other students caught on.

_'What should I do? I think I am just going to be calm and pretend I do not notice that kid trying to stare me down. Hopefully none of the other students catch onto what he is trying to do and they do not join in like sheep in a flock'_ thought Naruto worriedly.

Luckily for Naruto, the civilian student turned around when nobody went with his intentions and Naruto took a deep sigh of relief.

_'That could not have gone better for me. The less attention the students pay towards me the better off I am'_ Naruto surmised to himself. Convincing him self to continue being avoidant towards others.

"As one last opportunity to mingle and socialize with others in this scholastic atmosphere. I'm calling today's class as over and decided to just have a time for socializing with your friends and peers right now." Iruka finished his speech and the students gave a collective roar of appreciation as Iruka smiled at the young adolescents happiness at the event that was taking place now. Mizuki arrived at that moment to give Iruka somebody to talk to within that time period.

Many of the youngsters were happy at what was taking place under the usually strict Iruka-sensei but not all was pleasant in the classroom. Two similar yet completely different students were not very happy at this for two completely different reasons.

The students who were not all enthusiastic about this time were Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki, two of the brightest young shinobi in the classroom.

Although their reasons were different, both just did not like to talk to other people and were more introverted and kept to them selves at this age. While the girls marked it as attractive to act this way, they hated Naruto still and thought he was trying to act like Sasuke to attract attention to make him look better. Naruto never got to hear this however, as he was usually gone by the time these comments were made.

_'Great, now I have to stick around and listen to all these girls tell me these stories about how much they love me and what they did yesterday. I could be using this time training, plotting and becoming a better shinobi rather than sitting here and socializing. What good is this anyway in the ninja field? This kind of stuff is what gets you killed, exactly like my clan that I must avenge' _Thought Sasuke, brooding about how he could get his hands on his older brother and murderer of the Uchiha clan, Itachi Uchiha.

_'I have nobody to talk to but some group will get together and try to laugh at me the whole time while I am sitting here waiting to get out. The good thing about this is that I have time to do more activities if I am able to get out of here before school usually ends.'_ Thought Naruto to himself as he was plotting to get his way out of the classroom.

Many of the students were thoroughly invested into conversations and even the teachers were distracted. The biggest group of students was mostly girls and it was centered close in proximity to the desk of Sasuke Uchiha, who was not listening to the conversation that took place around him. Naruto felt that it was time to leave and then he would try to make an escape. While nobody was looking, Naruto was able to henge into one of the male students that was shadowed by his male friends. He made his way to the center of the classroom and nearly made it out of the door when Mizuki caught him.

"Hey, where are you going?" asked Iruka with curiosity. Iruka was so generous in allowing the students to have this time, how dare this kid leave like that.

"I am just going to the bathroom." replied Naruto with a henged voice.

Iruka just smiled and let a henged Naruto go to the 'bathroom'. He knew the true intentions of the person using the henge, so he let it go. Naruto took the back exit out of the building and began running home to his apartment where he would be away from the callous glances of the villagers and in a safe haven where he could rest for a while.

Whie running home Naruto remembered how useful the henge is when used properly.

***Flashback***

A young boy with black hair entered the shinobi equipmemt store. The boy had a pale complexion with black hair that was short. He went to the manager and asked him a question.

"Do you know if you have any type of shinobi gear my size?" Asked the young boy.

"Where is your parents youngster?" The manager asked with a smile on his face.

"My mother is out buying the food and my father is up at the Hokage's office making sure his one month mission is still going to happen." said the young boy.

"Ok, youngster. Right this way we have some shinobi gear for you." Said the man, escorting the youngster back to where most of the genins got their clothing.

The boy took some time and picked out some shinobi gear that included a black long sleeved shirt with a fishnet shirt under it and grey shinobi pants. The boy paid for his gear and left.

The manager just had a feeling that something was off about the boy but was unable to put a finger on exactly what it was.

The boy walked home towards his apartment, he really had no father or mother but had to create a story in order for the manager to believe him. Naruto released the henge and was in his new clothing already with the old flashy shinobi gear at his house in case he ever needed to use it again.

_'That is why you do not let civilians work a shinobi shop where I am not allowed. They will never realize even the most basic of shinobi techniques that can be used to distort reality.'_ Naruto concluded to himself, accomplishing his mission of getting new 'less attention grabbing' shinobi gear. Naruto now took the back roads to his apartment in order to avoid the rest of the civilians with his henge now dispelled.

***End Flashback***

**(Meanwhile in the classroom)**

Hinata Hyuuga was having a civilized chat with Shino Aburame and was talking about some different things including clan duties. When Shino was joined by Chouji and Shikamaru, she politely excused herself to find the one person that she really wanted to talk to more than anybody else.

_'Where is Naruto-kun? He isn't in his seat like he usually is. I really wanted to talk to him for a little bit before he left and these exams start. I really do not want to be put on a different team than Naruto-kun'_ Hinata thought as she was searching the classroom for Naruto, going by the 'Sasuke Uchiha fanclub group' that was gathered around an annoyed Uchiha's desk.

While Hinata was searching, nobody noticed the escape of one Naruto Uzumaki. He did what he became known for, disappearing into thin air without any witnesses to see his escape.

**(A few hours later at a training ground unknown)**

Naruto was training for his final examination so he could get a good grade and get into a team that he would like to be in. He was no longer the dead last in the academy and he knew he had shinobi skills that were able to take out most of the classroom. Naruto was only apprehensive about facing Sasuke in a fight, who he deemed an even match but Sasuke had the elemental advantage over him with that fire technique. Naruto could only do one thing about that; try to train the water technique that he learned from the scroll he stole from the Konoha shinobi library.

Dragon, Tiger, Hare symbols then

**Suiton: Mizurappa** (Water Release: Violent Water Wave)

With this Naruto pushed water out of his body into his mouth and then out his mouth. While the technique was clearly was not fully perfected, Naruto still shot it at a tree and made a small indent with the jutsu. This jutsu took a little bit out of Naruto as the quick stream of water came out and then Naruto had to rest for another two minutes before trying the jutsu again. Naruto was using water in his own body for the technique and needed to keep some water in his body to maintain equilibrium. Naruto continued trying the technique for another hour and a half, improving it a tiny bit before heading back to his apartment.

**(In the Hokage's Office)**

Sarutobi was using his crystal ball to check on each of the fresh genin that were preparing for tomorrow's upcoming examinations. He was surprised to see Naruto in the training grounds, as most of the students spare one Uchiha were sleeping or having family time trying to relax for tomorrow. What had surprised the Hokage more is the fact that Naruto had learned two C-ranked jutsu. The academy jutsu that were taught were D-rank for a reason. Most genin would take months to master a C-ranked jutsu because of their chakra coils and control.

_'I have no doubt about his chakra coils being able to sustain the technique but what is more impressive is that Naruto can effectively do all the academy jutsu and some minor jutsu as well even with all the Kyuubi chakra.' _Thought the "God of Shinobi" to himself.

Sarutobi watched yesterday as Naruto had mostly learned the Futon: Daitoppa technique that one of his students had completely mastered. The certain snake used it in most of his battles as he felt it was a simple yet very powerful technique. The jutsu was a flashback to all the times that he saw Orochimaru use the jutsu to perfection. As he watched Naruto continue to use the jutsu he also noticed something completely different about Naruto after Hinata (who he had also spied on and got a chuckle out of when she almost fell off the tree because of Naruto's wind technique) left. Naruto then tried the jutsu with all the chakra he knew the jutsu could hold and it turned out successful. He noticed that even though he might be young, Naruto already knew what it meant to be a shinobi.

The Hokage noticed this was a good decision because Naruto could use other people's over confidence to beat them at their own game with a simple C-ranked yet powerful if executed right ninjutsu.

_'Another good thing that Naruto has going for him is that one water technique is able to negate any attempt that somebody could use a fire technique against his wind technique. He has one corner of the elemental diagram monopolized as he is able to beat both fire and lightning releases but will struggle for a solution for my element, the earth element' _thought Sarutobi trying to examine Naruto's skill level and how he might progress in the near future.

The Hokage then started to look at the other genins and what they were doing, while he had already checked on most of them he still had a few genin left to check on. He began with Hinata Hyuuga who was in her room flower pressing, and then moved onto Sakura Haruno who was eating dinner with her mom and chatting about her day. The last person he viewed but already knew what he was doing was Shikamaru Nara, who was sleeping.

**(At Naruto's apartment)**

Naruto had trained so hard that he dozed off to sleep and did not even realize that he was tired. He fell asleep on the hard, unforgiving and uncomfortable bed that was provided for him by the Hokage. Naruto did not care about the structure or the comfort of the bed, as long as it was sturdy and provided a surface for Naruto to sleep on then it was fine with him. Naruto began rolling around on his bed as he was trying to escape something but could not find an exit or could not get away from the target.

**(Naruto's dream)**

"Now Naruto can you perform a henge" said Mizuki, a twitch of irritation on his face.

Naruto went to perform the henge of Iruka but formed some ugly and fat version of Iruka.

"Is this your idea of a joke Naruto. I knew you were always pathetic but I did not think you would stoop this low to try to make fun of the teacher that actually tried to help you.," yelled Iruka

"It is with pleasure that I tell you that you have failed. Don't even think about retaking this class again because you are over the age limit of the academy ranks. Meaning you cannot even become a shinobi." Stated Mizuki, as he was almost jumping up and down for joy.

"The demon can't even graduate!" yelled Sakura. She and Ino got up and high fived each other as Naruto stooped his head low so nobody could see his face. Naruto was crying as the only chance that he had of fulfilling his dream was completely dashed by a D-rank jutsu.

"The funny thing about this Naruto, is that it was all a genjutsu that I casted" stated Mizuki, even with Iruka in front of him.

Iruka looked appalled by this at first but then began smiling as he laughed at this but then straightened out into a serious face.

"I don't care if it was a genjutsu, I saw with my own eyes that Naruto could not do a henge technique, meaning that he can't graduate. The demon cannot graduate." stated Iruka.

With that the whole class got to its feet and surrounded 'The Demon' as he knelt down covering his face. All the students were there yelling at him, Ino, Sakura, Sasuke and even Hinata were yelling at him and chanting 'Demon'. All the sudden a red and black burst of chakra enveloped Naruto and he stood up to all the students.

Naruto awakened to find that his whole body was sweating and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"It was only a dream and it never happened" Naruto said to himself as he was rapidly breathing heavily and then laid back down to gain his composure. Naruto then got up several minutes later, took a few sips of some past expiration date milk and headed back to sleep. Naruto hoped that the hours could go by quick so his terrifying nightmares could finally leave him.

**(7:00 AM, the next day)**

All of the genins were rising up and waking up for what would be the most important day of their life to this point. They would all be taking a written and field examination in order for placement, deciding teams and ultimately deciding if they are fit to become genin under the jurisdiction of Konohagakure.

There were different thoughts that centered on the test and the ceremony that followed it.

_'Troublesome'_

_'Today is the day that I beat my rival and prove to my true love that I am the better one for him'_

_'The is the start of the journey that leads to me killing my brother and avenging my clan'_

_'Forehead better stay out of my way because I will be the top kunoichi of the class'_

_'I just hope too many people aren't watching me or that dream from last night doesn't come true'_

_'My bugs and knowledge will lead me to pass this test'_

The different thoughts and motivations of the genin differed but all were looking forward on passing this test and becoming a genin of Konoha. Each had their dreams and ambitions but all of them started with this one small step that would lead to the shinobi lifestyle.

All of the genin prospects made their ways to the academy and arrived in the classroom. Iruka had been waiting for all of them and greeted each one of them as they entered the classroom. Students once greeting Iruka sat down in their chair and awaited instruction by Iruka on what each portion of the test would comprise of.

All students had entered the classroom; Iruka closed the door and moved to the center of the classroom.

"As all of you know, the test is today to determine whether you will be moving to genin rank or your shinobi career ends today. After today the genin ceremony will be held tomorrow and teams will be chosen in two days on Friday. During that day your teams will be revealed to you and you will function within the bounds of that team and with nobody else without permission from your team." Iruka began his speech.

Many of the students listened for the dates and tuned Iruka out until he got to the instructions of the test.

"These teams will be your shinobi future for the next several years. Once you graduate to a higher rank you will be in these teams." Continued Iruka.

Of all those who were listening, most of them were girls. At this comment the girls of the classroom instantly all tensed as most of them were looking to be on a team with a certain raven-haired brooding Uchiha but one of the young kunoichi in the classroom wanted to be on a team with a certain blonde haired boy. That team however comprised of just the two of them instead of with another person and a jounin-sensei.

"These tests today along with your individual grades will determine where you rank in the class, along with how your techniques work with each other will establish your teams. So the first part of the test begins as Mizuki (who had just entered the classroom) begins passing out your written examinations. Please turn in the tests at the front of the classroom to me when you finish them." Concluded Iruka as he sat down at his desk when Mizuki finished passing out the tests.

Naruto was eagerly awaiting his test. He was praying that none of his nightmares would come true. That he would get the right test without any genjutsu he couldn't detect on it, that it did not already come with a 'F' on it or that it contained some of the hardest questions that he had ever seen in his life.

Luckily for the blonde protagonist, there was nothing wrong about the test and he went through it quickly. He remembered every part about elemental nature, Konoha's history and some basic shinobi tactics. He felt that he made close to one hundred percent on the written portion of the test. He warily walked to the front of the classroom noting all the evil glances that he would get and the civilian students leering at him, including Mizuki and handed in his test.

He walked backwards to make sure that Iruka did not quickly switch the paper into a different pile for failure or to make sure did not pass. Instead Iruka simply dropped the written test into the same pile with the rest of the students and smiled at Naruto as he walked back to the cold and silent sector of the room where he sat.

The test took a half an hour for the rest of the people to finish. Some students were taking a while because they were painstakingly checking every last answer to ensure that they all had a chance to get everything they could right. Once the last student finished a rush of excitement filled the room, as everybody was anxious about the next portion of the exam.

"The first portion of your tests have been completed, Mizuki will remain inside of the classroom to grade the written portion of the test while I will take you guys outside to training ground three in order to complete the other half of the exam. Now follow me and do not get left behind because the test will start without you there and not attending this means automatic failure" Iruka stated as he then about-faced and began marching out the door with many students quickly following his stride to training ground three.

Mizuki had a smile on his face as every student left the classroom, some waved and said goodbye to him while others completely ignored him. Mizuki was now left to grade papers and completely left to his own devices.

**(15 minutes later at training ground three)**

All of the students had arrived at the training ground and many of them had butterflies as they were mentally preparing for their test that was to be administered here.

"Now for this portion of the test you will be fighting against one of my bushins (clones) that has been weakened to a low genin level. You can use anything during this exam that you feel necessary. That means clan techniques; taijutsu and ninjutsu are all legal during this fight, just like in real life. That means come at my clone with everything you have."

Many of the students just could not get this idea in their head. They did not want to hurt their teacher and forgot that it was a clone. However, many of the students actually did well.

Even those who were doubted to do well such as Ino Yamanka, Kiba Inuzuka and Sakura Haruno gave the Iruka clone some competition.

Then there were others who completely overpowered the clone. The students in this category were Shikamaru Nara (through his Shadow Imitation Technique), Shino Aburame (The use of his insects, many students nearly had a panic attack when seeing the insects coming out of his body) and Sasuke Uchiha (leveled the clone with one Great Fireball Technique).

Finally after Chouji Akamichi defeated the clone in a hard fought battle, it was time for Naruto Uzumaki to step up to the plate and battle a clone.

"Come at me with everything you have Naruto" stated the clone Iruka.

Naruto took these words to heart as he opened up in a basic academy taijutsu set. Many of the students began to snicker as many of them believed that Naruto was about to be massacred by the Iruka clone. Some of the civilian adults that came to watch their children were hoping that it was the perfect opportunity for Iruka to finally kill the demon.

Naruto lunged at the Iruka clone with a flurry of punches and kicks that were all blocked by the clone. The clone saw an opening and went for a quick strike on Naruto's open chest.

Unfortunately for the clone, Naruto had prepared for this and swept the clone off its feet in one smooth move. Naruto jumped back and flipped through hand signs before the clone got back to its feet.

**Futon: Daitoppa**

The gust of wind behind Naruto grew and shot at the clone with high velocity. The wind slammed against the clone sending it backwards onto the ground. Naruto seized the opportunity and jumped towards Iruka next to him raising a kunai and sliced a part of the clone's arm open dispelling it.

Iruka began clapping on the sidelines as Naruto turned to him and smiled. The rest of the students and adults were stunned that the once dead-last student had quickly defeated their teacher in the same way that the top students like Shino and Sasuke did.

There was a stunned silence as Naruto and the rest of the students saw Iruka smile and clap as Naruto had passed the field examination with flying colors. Iruka knew that this would cement Naruto as a top student unless he absolutely bombed on the written portion of the test.

The remaining students had their individual collected thoughts about the matter at hand that just took place.

_'How did the dobe get so strong quickly? He still is a dobe but that was impressive, even using a jutsu that I did not even know about.'_ Thought the rookie of the year.

_'Even Akamaru and me could not defeat Iruka that fast'_ Thought what some people considered the incarnate of Naruto with his hyper attitude and playful spirit.

_'Naruto-kun has improved so much from where he used to be. I hope that he is one of the top students and he ends up on my team'_ thought the one girl in the class who would appreciate him for who he was

_'Hmm, it seems that my insects were correct and Naruto is indeed more powerful than everybody suggests. Maybe I should look into this matter further and ask my father what he knows about this enigma'_ thought the quiet and analytical shinobi that was full of mystery.

The rest of the students waited patiently as the others finished their matches and everybody completed the field examination.

"Now that everybody has completed the field examination, we will make our way back to the classroom in order to receive the results of the written portion of the test and have them graded with the field examination. Also the top three shinobi and kunoichi of the class will be announced." Said Iruka, now turned around to the group and leading the way back to the academy. He paused and then faced the class again.

"I thank the parents for attending the field examination but the results will be read in private to the students only. I am sure that you will find out the results from your excited children tonight."

With that all of the parents went up to their student and wished them goodbye. For Naruto this was a big relief as many of the parents were glaring at him and nearly gave him a nervous breakdown because of the negative attention that he was receiving via the stares and leering.

The students all then walked back to the academy and the classroom in order to hear the results.

**(Back in the classroom 30 minutes later)**

Iruka had the results in. He and Mizuki had been grading the exams and had come up with a cumulative grade for all the prospective genin. The rankings were formed on their papers in front of Iruka.

"First up will be the top three kunoichi of the class."

All the girls visibly tensed and awaited the results of the grading.

"In third place for this class is **Ino Yamanaka**"

Ino stood up and screeched as she cheered for herself. Many students had to quickly cover their ears in fear of losing a vital sense for shinobi.

"In second place for this class is **Sakura Haruno**"

"True love triumphs every time" Sakura yelled after she found out that she had defeated her precious rival in love for Sasuke. She was very satisfied with the result and quickly sat back down and began blushing as she was having a hallucination that Sasuke actually looked at her. In contraire, Sasuke was looking out the window waiting to get the rookie of the year award.

"In first place for this class is **Hinata Hyuuga**"

Hinata gave a small smile as all the attention in the class, including Naruto was focused on her. She nearly fainted when she saw Naruto looking at her but she maintained her composure and took some deep breaths. She sat back down quickly and made sure she was not going to faint.

"For the rookie of the year, we are going to do this in reverse order since we already know who the rookie of the year is. Now **Sasuke Uchiha** could you come get your rookie of the year trophy"

Sasuke walked towards the front of the room and accepted his trophy. Never once did he smile but he did acknowledge the clapping that many of the fan-girls were doing for him. This 'nicer' act of Sasuke proved to be a mistake as he heard the cheering go up to a new level. He sat back down and prayed to Kami that the noise would stop.

Kami answered the Uchiha heir's prayer as Iruka cleared his throat and continued on with the standings.

"In second place for the shinobi in this class is **Shino Aburame**"

Shino acknowledged everybody but did not take off his glasses or hood.

"Lastly, in third place for the shinobi in this class is **Naruto Uzumaki**"

A stunned silence entered the room as all of the young boys in the class realized that Naruto had beaten them all, both academically and applying his skills. Naruto stood up and smiled as everybody in the class was in shock that nobody reacted.

_'This is better than expected, nobody reacted. I'm free of judgment for once!'_ thought Naruto to himself as this caused his smile to go back to the goofy grin that he once wore daily as a youth.

Hinata was smiling at Naruto and one of the only one's who processed the info quickly along with Sasuke and Shikamaru, who already knew this was coming and fell back asleep.

_'Why is Hinata trying to fake being happy for me'_ Naruto thought to himself as he noticed the Hyuuga heiress with a smile on her face looking at him.

_'Kami, Naruto-kun is looking at me, I might faint. Hold together Hinata, you can do it. Just turn back around and forget that ever happened but know that Naruto acknowledged you.'_ Hinata tried to tell herself and she did just that, not fainting.

"I will now announce the rest of the new genins, remember the ceremony is tomorrow." Continued Iruka.

Naruto began zoning out and relished the fact that he placed third in the class. Meaning he would be the top dog on the team, the one that the Jonin-sensei could rely on.

Naruto awoke from his daydream when people were leaving, some with disappointed looks of failure on their face and others with ecstatic joy on their faces that they were becoming genin. All the young people of the village parted their ways as they headed back to their establishments in order to prepare for the next day of ceremonies or begin their new lives.

**(Later that Night)**

Naruto decided tonight was a cause for celebration and to celebrate the feat of becoming a genin he would go to his favorite place to eat, Ichiraku's ramen. Using the money he had saved up, he went and feasted on ramen of all different types.

"Naruto don't you think you have had too much yet?" Asked Ayame, the closest thing to a sister figure ever had in his life.

"One more Ayame, I'm almost full" Naruto said and then burped. Having completed his sixth bowl of ramen.

"Coming right up Naruto, just make sure you are able to eat it and not puke it all back up" stated Ayame and she began preparing the last bowl of ramen for Naruto.

Naruto stayed true to his word and did not regurgitate the ramen, keeping it down and eating the seventh bowl completely. Naruto then paid for every bowl he ate and said his goodbyes to both Ayame and Teuchi. Halfway to his house, he thought he felt a disturbance in the pitch black of the night. Suddenly a shinobi appeared behind Naruto and chopped him in the neck, knocking him unconscious.

The person then scooped up Naruto and gave him to another individual. Here is the person you requested, now pay me the money you requested. The individual holding Naruto gave Naruto to another person who dumped him on the ground because they could not support his weight. The taller of the people gave the shinobi the money and the shinobi sped off in the opposite direction, hoping nobody noticed the downed ANBU that was supposed to be watching Naruto.

The taller of the two people picked up Naruto and spoke to the other.

"We have him now, let us go to the field and get back what was originally yours."

The smaller person nodded and followed the taller person with Naruto Uzumaki on their shoulder. They were heading towards the shinobi training grounds.

**(Unknown Shinobi training ground, 1 AM)**

Naruto awakened to find himself bound in ropes to a tree. Naruto was not pleased but suddenly became alert at two presences that came his way. One was taller than the other; the second was about his size.

"Do you know where you are right now Naruto Uzumaki?" The taller man stated as Naruto tried to identify anything that would help him out of this situation.

"You are at the same training ground where you beat Iruka-sensei and unjustly took my position as third best in the class" stated the younger figure with apparent rage in his voice.

Naruto's mind finally started turning the gears that needed to be made in order to identify who his kidnappers were.

"You're that kid that I replaced as the third best in the class." Stated Naruto

The kid reached down and punched Naruto in the face; the blow did not do much although it did a lot to make Naruto angry.

"That's right, you don't even remember my name because I am so unimportant to you." The boy stated still in a completely rage filled voice that could kill people if voices could kill.

"Now we are going to rectify this situation before it gets out of hand here. You are going to die while my son is able to get back his shinobi career which is rightfully deserved while you die like the demon you are." Stated the taller figure, the father of his son.

"Gin, would you like to administer the killing blow" stated the father to his son

"This would be your first kill and you would help Konoha so much by killing the demon and getting rid of it so that we are never haunted by the past again. This would be the first kill of many and give our family name the honor it always deserved." Continued the father, giving the kunai to his son.

Gin walked over and twirled the kunai in front of Naruto a few times, nearly dropping it half the time, as he wasn't good with shinobi techniques. Gin was one of the highest ranked students in terms of knowledge and paperwork but he was unable to even land a hit on the Iruka clone. This downgraded his score substantially and Iruka deemed him unfit to be a shinobi from his battle skills.

"My first kill will be the greatest kill in the long history of Konoha. This kill will be greater than any of that by the first, second, third or even the fourth Hokage. With that Gin lowered the kunai dangerously close to Naruto's throat but was stopped suddenly.

Naruto forced chakra into the ropes and broke them. Unfortunately for Gin and his father, they bought normal civilian rope to tie Naruto with instead of chakra resistant rope that is immune to chakra pulses that a hostage may emit. Gin looked on in horror as Naruto now stood up. To say Naruto was different would be saying a half-truth, he was different but he just changed his ways in some aspects. Death brings the true form of people out so much more quickly.

"Rejected by all, do you know what that means? To be the one always standing on the sidelines who was never accepted by anybody. Do you know what that means?" Naruto asked rhetorically, now standing on his feet near Gin.

Gin was shaking so bad that he could not even know the answer. His father rushed over to his side and tried to attack Naruto with his bare fists. This proved to be a fatal mistake.

Naruto caught the elder's fist and smiled as he twisted his whole arm.

"Clemency, I plead for clemency" said the father.

Naruto laughed and smiled as he gave his answer.

"I offer no clemency for those who threaten me"

Naruto hit the elder square in the nose. Upon impact, the elder was thrust into the air and then into the ground with blood spewing from the striked appendage.

"NOOOOOOOOOO! Father, why did you do this" asked Gin shouting loudly.

Naruto smiled as he looked down at Gin who was now weeping uncontrollably.

"You wonder why Iruka-sensei did not accept you as a shinobi, look at you now. Completely useless in a situation where a shinobi would try to take advantage of my guard dropping." Naruto began laughing as Gin stood up and tried to attack. Naruto merely shoved him to the ground.

"Do you understand what rejection is yet Gin? You have a small dose of it because you were rejected by Iruka-sensei but not a full comprehensive definition so let me update you on how pain is."

"How would you like to be rejected everyday of your life as you walk around knowing you did nothing to anybody. No sins of omission or any evil deed committed against the shinobi, villagers or citizens of Konoha? That is my everyday life, to know I am laughed at by every shinobi in the village and hated by that same large group of people," continued Naruto

"Yes Naruto, I know how you feel, I used to laugh at you but now I won't" said a shocked Gin, trying to find a way to not become like his father.

"Silence brat, now is not the time for you to talk. I did not finish yet. So do you know what rejection brings about in people?" asked Naruto, but this time Gin replied.

"N-n-n-n-no, I d-d-d-don't know" answered Gin truthfully

"Exactly, I didn't think you would know that. You are accepted by a lot of people, your family, all of the friends of your family and the civilians of this village. Even some of the shinobi population respects you for trying to become like them. You have never experienced what I have, so consider yourself lucky."

"You have had everything handed to you while I have always had to scrap for everything."

Gin was petrified of the former academy student that stood before him. One could easily say that these words were coming out of the mouth of a man and not a mere 12-year-old boy.

"Why have you changed so much?"

Naruto considered falling down and rolling on his sides laughing at the stupidity of that question.

"Why? Haven't you been listening to what I've said? I've never been accepted by anybody in this village. Do you know what that can do to you?"

Gin quickly shook his head no.

"That's not for you to know. It's now time for you to go to sleep." Naruto quickly chopped Gin in the neck to knock him unconscious but not kill him. He needed all the evidence he could get against a civilian council, which will try to execute Naruto for this. However, if a person could view the memories of another then Naruto could make a case that these two were committing treason.

"Now that you are unconscious, I'll share my answer. I'm making these people pay."

"For making me cold"

"For making me avoidant"

"For creating an image that I'm ugly and never will be a beautiful creature"

"For ruining my self-esteem"

"For influencing me to become a demon"

"For making me feel pain my entire life, not acute but chronic pain."

"For all the times that I threw up because I didn't know what lied ahead for me."

"For convincing me that I'm evil"

"For discriminating against me"

"The whole world will be in a full state of acceptance, I'll truly be able to finally feel acceptance for the first time in life. I'll no longer be looked at with a negative glare but with the admiration of many. I will stand next to Rikudo Sennin as the greatest shinobi to ever live. Not just by Konoha citizens but by everybody."

"The people of this world has forgotten how great it can be but I will make them remember again as I bring forth acceptance for everybody. Nobody will be, no more pariahs and lower class. Everybody will live in peace. I'll bring the true potential of this world to its surface."

Naruto looked to the skies with a smile on his face.

"If you don't accept me for who I am, then I'm going to create acceptance for me and for everybody else in this world. Why? That's my nindo."

FIN.

* * *

A/N: That's the end of chapter 1. I made a lot of modifications from the original story but left quite a bit similar. Thanks for reading.


	2. Chapter 2: A Stagnant Aftermath

Hi guys and gals, chapter 2 coming right up. I'm thankful for the many people who follow, favorite, review or read the story. I love it and it fuels my inspiration to continue into the story further. The next chapter will be started after "Drowning in Darkness" is posted. I've really wanted to get that story underway. I'll be posting a preview of about 500-1,000 words of what to expect in that. I think a lot of you are going to love it.

"Human Talk"

**"Demonic Talk, Screaming or Important things"**

_'Thoughts'_

**(Period of Time)** indicates a scene break

***1 year ago*** Flashbacks

**Jutsu**

* * *

**Chapter 2: A Stagnant Aftermath  
**

Naruto surveyed the scene in front of him. His still developing mind was trying to decipher what just happened, the possible implications, ramifications and punishment that could be coming his way from his deed. Gin's father lay on the cold, dry grass that was covered by the pitch-black shade of the night. Gin himself was laid out but knocked unconscious from Naruto's assault on him (both verbal and physical).

_'What do I do now? If I am caught by ANBU then I am toasted. The villagers already hate me enough but with this on top of that then I will be executed for sure. I have to either finish the job and run or leave the scene immediately'_ thought Naruto, beginning to panic.

Then again, most twelve year olds were not supposed to be in this situation. This was one of the reasons that the shinobi force rose the age to become both a shinobi and ANBU member since the Uchiha massacre.

Naruto's fight or flight response finally kicked in, he took one last look at the bodies in front of him and he made a quick move towards his apartment. Determined that he could make it there before being caught.

_'I cannot be caught, my destiny has now been carved in a path before me and I must follow it. If I fail then I let my generation down and I will never want to see the light of day. This world needs me, I am the hope for true prosperity and peace among the world'_ thought Naruto as he began scampering back to his house.

Luckily for Naruto, there was no ANBU chasing him back to his house or even one assigned to him at the moment due to an unexpected event. For now, Naruto's destiny was set.

**(Early in the Morning)**

An unknown figure arrived at the training ground that the skirmish between Naruto, Gin and his father took place. The figure looked down at the bodies and then scooped them up quickly before disappearing into the shadows of dawn.

**(Graduation Day)**

The soon to be crowned genins all woke up with a smile on their face, except one. One was contemplating what would potentially happen to him if the bodies were found and somehow he was linked to the assault of a certain citizen.

_'If I get convicted for assault of two citizens, they will kill me for sure. I cannot get convicted, look guilty or do anything that makes me look guilty at all'_ thought Naruto to himself as he paced back in forth in his hole-in-the wall apartment.

Something dawned upon Naruto as he was pacing back and forth in his apartment that he had not thought about last night.

_'Although what do I have to worry about? It was in self-defense so I should not have any penalty. The villagers will surely find some way to skew this against me.' _Naruto processed the information for the first time since waking up and sat down with his hands in his head and hair.

'What have I done?" was the singular thing that Naruto said.

Naruto began crying all the sudden. Things weren't supposed to be this hard for any child. He had to constantly live on guard because he didn't have an ally in the village. He had nobody to lean on and nobody who would be there for him if he truly needed it. He cried for a period of time before getting himself ready to go to class.

**(Meanwhile, at another estate)**

Sasuke Uchiha was training early in the morning. If Sasuke wanted to be better than his brother and one day take down the greatest prodigy of the Uchiha clan, he had to be in top shape with both his taijutsu, ninjutsu and genjutsu skills. Sasuke was currently working on his taijutsu with just an invisible partner, only visible to Sasuke. Sasuke promptly ducked under a kick, elbowed the opponent in the stomach and then kicked the opponent in the face. Sasuke then backed up and rested for a moment.

_'There, that should do it for the morning practice session. My workload as a genin should increase but with that comes a teacher who will teach me even more powerful techniques and help me progress to the next level. When I increase my ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu and unlock my sharingan then I will go after my brother and bathe in his blood as I destroy him tearing every limb off his body until he pleads for me to end his misery.'_

The simple thought of Sasuke brutalizing Itachi brought a smile to the face of the young Uchiha. He looked over at the clock and noticed the time; it was 30 minutes away from the graduation ceremony for the future genins. The Uchiha heir was not pleased, he was hoping to possibly work on some ninjutsu as he caught his second wind after doing a taijutsu spar against his partner.

_'Why do we have to do these stupid ceremonies anyway? Can't they just place us on teams immediately after the test and we leave to train right away. I could already be training with a sensei that would be teaching me every thing that is possible to know. Ceremonies are for these political leaders and losers who are unable to become shinobi. I do not know why such things exist; they falsify reality and put a façade on for the world to see that everything is prim and proper. Well it is not all fairy tale material, we live in a world of hatred.'_ Thought a brooding Uchiha heir as he began getting ready for the ceremony he loathed.

**(Yamanaka household, 45 minutes prior to graduation)**

Ino Yamanaka was getting ready for the graduation ceremony. She knew that it was just an informal get together with everybody from the class to celebrate the festivities for becoming genin but she needed to look good for the ceremony. Anyway, Sasuke would be watching and she wanted to stun him.

She was currently doing her makeup as she put on her usual attire. Her dad was in the house and was somewhat pleased on her progress of becoming genin.

"Could you hurry up Ino? Your ceremony starts in 45 minutes" Inoichi yelled to the future heiress to the Yamanaka clan.

Ino was aggravated by her father's complete lack of respect to the art of women trying to be fashionable to a gathering.

"I will be down in five minutes daddy, I'm just making sure that I look good for the ceremony" said Ino to her father, who was currently shaking his head at his daughter's response.

_'Looking good for the ceremony? Who is she trying to fool? The Yamanaka clan is known for seeing through people for a reason. I know that she is not getting herself to look good for the ceremony but instead for Sasuke. Hopefully once she graduates from the academy she will get over her crush and decide to be a true shinobi in the footsteps of her wonderful father.'_ Inoichi was thinking as Ino arrived downstairs.

"There is my lovely daughter, are you ready for the ceremony?" Inoichi said as he hugged his daughter and exited the house with her.

There was one thing that could be learned from the Yamanaka clan if you took a quick observation of their actions. That both the current heir and the future heiress shared two common personality traits: arrogance and vanity.

**(Naruto's apartment, 20 minutes until the ceremony)**

_'Argh, only twenty minutes left until the ceremony begins? Why do I have to do this? The parents of the students will be there and I already know how they treat me outside of the academy so why will this be any different? I hate these social gatherings, all that I do is get ridiculed by the other students and parents, I get hurt, nobody is there to help me and then something bad happens. I have to pick up the pieces before the same cycle happens again.'_

Naruto began gathering his things that he would need for the graduation ceremony. He grabbed the goggles that he usually wore on his head but set them back down.

_'They are too childish, they do not fit my shinobi way or my outfit. I have no use for these things anymore. They just do not fit with my lifestyle at all, that part of Naruto is dead forever. Nobody accepted that Naruto and nobody ever would have. _

Naruto was conjuring these words in his head as he threw the goggles into the trashcan with sour milk and some ramen cups. Naruto then exited his apartment into the sunny streets of Konoha to walk to the academy for one of the last two times that he would ever be there.

Naruto was ordinarily walking through the street and it was a usual day for him with the villagers. Naruto would get a bunch of death glares and funny looks thrown his way, people would gossip about him but Naruto was instinctively curious about what they were saying today. Naruto was also surprised that no ANBU had been sent to assassinate or subdue him to take into custody.

"Hey there is that demon kid," said the customer to the shopkeeper.

"Yeah, there he is. I would rather not have to see that kid for the rest of my life." Said the shopkeeper with a stern look on his face.

"Did you hear about what he did yesterday?" asked the customer with a dark look on his face.

Naruto's whole body had tensed. He was starting to become worried about what this citizen would say. There is no way that Naruto would be able to stop him from saying it either in broad daylight, if Naruto was found out by this man then he would be in custody fore sure soon.

'_**Damnit! They already found out! Where's the ANBU to take me away now?'**_ screamed Naruto in his head in full anger. Naruto's worst fear had become to be detained since he would be all alone, just like his whole life.

"I heard he did a wonderful job against Iruka's clone yesterday. Some parents had said that he actually displayed some shinobi skill and passed. Part of me thinks that was just out of sympathy. I personally think that he should have never become a shinobi in the first place. He is too big of a threat to become powerful, what a dumb decision by the Hokage.

Naruto was first relieved to hear those words that the customer said but then became angry at the following comments. He was the prototypical villager, quick to point out anything that Naruto did wrong but not even in the same time period when another person did wrong to Naruto. The fickle villagers had it out for Naruto, and were not going to stop until they saw his blood spill and run all over the dusty streets of Konohagakure.

Naruto was angered, but let that affect him positively, strengthening him for the future and all the tasks that he might face as a genin. He thought about how it would be to have a team for the first time, he would not have to be alone. However, the possibility still ran a muck that he would likely have two teammates and a sensei that hates him.

If that was the case, likely it would be considering his past history then he would have to go against the undulation of hate that was the tidal wave known as Konohagakure citizens. Then again, Naruto smirked on the inside because he knew that it was his destiny to become a great shinobi to unify the people in acceptance for all. It can't be all rosy for those who have that task.

Naruto kept walking knowing that he would have to deal with the hate of the citizens of Konoha but in the future he would be worshiped practically by everybody. Anyway, it was a fresh day with a renewed attitude that would not let people walk on him any longer. He will make them accept him.

The fresh genin were all plodding their way towards the academy since the ceremony was a mandatory attendance. Iruka did not bring any punishment up but the students were not willing to find out what kind of punishment Iruka's mind could come up with.

All the students but two were looking forward to hang out with their friends before the serious life of shinobi work began. For most of them, a warm and mushy feeling of togetherness was present, but the other two had the feelings of abhorrence, hatred and anger were prevalent.

**(Konoha academy)**

Iruka was getting the classroom set up, using clones to move things around so that it could be more of an informal gathering of young children instead of a formal, shinobi meeting that the students would have to get used to in the future. Iruka had just completed the work and look at a newer and renovated classroom that would be used for the ceremony, both children and parents would be here (some shinobi and some high ranked citizens).

_'Well I hope this is good for everybody, I know that this being mandatory might be a bit harsh but I want some of the Hokage was very specific on some of these new shinobi developing social skills so that they have friendships to think about if they ever turn against us.'_ Iruka reminded himself.

While Iruka thought the idea was completely of a genius, he knew that inside that some students (Sasuke, Naruto and Shino namely) would not be happy about having to attend this. Setting Shino aside, the other two were loose cannons.

_'I remember when Naruto was just the goofball prankster that some of us came to love and cherish.' _Iruka then began to remember the first day that Naruto changed his demeanor.

**(Iruka flashback)**

Iruka was just finishing things up with his future graduates class. He was going to see how Naruto was doing after failing the class for the second time. Iruka walked over to the swing where Naruto would sit himself, as he would swing back and forth praying to Kami for somebody to come have conversation with him.

Iruka noticed that Naruto was not at the swing at all but somewhere else, this was not like Naruto all together.

_'Something is out of order here; Naruto never is anywhere else but here. He watches the students leave with his parents because he wishes for them to come back everyday.'_ Iruka was now pondering where Naruto could be.

Iruka sent out some clones and began scouring the area close to the swing. Iruka knew that Naruto could run fast but he only used that ability when he was finishing a prank but would always love the attention if somebody came to talk to him.

_'I should contact the Hokage about this; see if he can find him somehow because this is weird that he is not where he usually is. He would wait at the swing to see if I would take him out to get some ramen with him.'_

So Iruka left to go to the Hokage's office because he felt that this was urgent and Naruto needed to be found as quickly as possible.

**(The Hokage's office)**

Iruka had walked quickly to the Hokage's office because he was too tired to run but in reality he did not want to run nor felt like Naruto would go anywhere so partially he took his time to collect his thoughts.

Iruka was standing outside of the Hokage's office, he had already cleared everything with the assistant and she had told him that nobody was currently in with the Hokage and that he was free for a little bit.

Iruka knocked on the door and was waiting for the conformation from the Third Hokage to let him.

"Please come in," replied the Third Hokage.

Iruka walked through the door and was a little distance away from the Third Hokage, who was sitting down in his desk with his hands on the desk.

Iruka then began explaining the situation to the Hokage. The Hokage was attentive the whole time but then chided Iruka for panicking. The Hokage looked down into the crystal ball and saw Naruto moving on the streets towards the training grounds.

"Naruto is heading to the training grounds Iruka, there is nothing to worry about. It is nice to know that somebody cares about him and not everybody hates him." Said the God of Shinobi.

Iruka gave a sigh of relief then exited the Hokage's office after trading a few stories of the children with him.

**(Training grounds)**

Iruka now was outside of the training ground areas; he split his clones up in order to find Naruto in quick enough time.

Iruka knew that he would be able to find Naruto quickly without alerting him of his presence. There were a few things that Iruka knew about Naruto's shinobi skills after training him twice to pass the graduation test, one of them was that Naruto had an ability to sense any type of chakra presence in a nearby area. This was one of the most determining factors along with a henge that made Naruto fail twice.

Iruka's clones began disappearing and dispelling one by one until he obtained the memories of one clone that had located a blond boy with an orange jumpsuit in one of the nearby training grounds.

Iruka smiled to himself as he had finally found Naruto and was heading over in his direction. Since Naruto was unharmed he was going to treat him to ramen tonight and tell him not to scare him like that again.

Iruka had arrived at the training ground that Naruto was training at, not paying attention to what Naruto was attempting to learn or perfect he walked right over to Naruto.

"Hey Naruto how about we go out for ramen now? It will be my treat." Iruka said, already knowing that Naruto will turn around with the big goofy grin on his face and tell him that he would be so excited to go get ramen with him.

"Not now Iruka-sensei, I am working on my shinobi arts, maybe some other time." stated Naruto with little emotion in his voice because of trying to concentrate on his new technique.

"But Naruto, I was looking forward to treating you to some good ramen that would fill both our stomachs." Iruka smiled after saying this because he knew this would bring temptation in some capacity to his young mind.

Unfortunately for Iruka, this would be the first of many days that Naruto would turn down going with Iruka for training his shinobi arts and perfecting his skills.

"Iruka-sensei, I am trying to work on a technique, so could you please not try to tempt me with desires that I would like to indulge in and leave me to perfect this technique I am working on." Naruto said still concentrating on whatever he was doing.

Iruka was stunned and stood there for a few minutes before the actualization had set in that Naruto did not want to hang out with him what so ever. Iruka then began going through the different outcomes that could happen if he tried to push Naruto beyond the limit that he was showing him right now. After a few moments in time where Iruka was battling the possibilities, Iruka finally decided he would leave the young boy to his own devices. After all Iruka was a teacher trying to teach these youngsters shinobi skills, so he could respect the decision Naruto had made.

Little did Iruka now that training would become an obsession for Naruto. Naruto was often by himself and usually training to perfect his techniques. Iruka would rarely ever see Naruto until he enrolled in his class for the third time, but even then Naruto was very rare to see unless he was in the classroom. Either training or some other thing he was doing would take up most of his time.

**(End Flashback)**

**(Iruka's classroom)**

The new genin were starting to file into the classroom. Ino Yamanaka and her father Inoichi Yamanaka had just arrived and were talking to Chouji Akimichi and his father Choza Akimichi. Apparently from what Iruka had overheard from the conversation was that Shikamaru Nara and his father Shikaku Nara were going to be arriving close to the time the ceremony started. Also what had made Iruka sort of angry was that both Nara's had described the ceremony as "troublesome".

Some of the students were coming in alone, either stating that their parents were out on missions or had important business to do. Among the students that had not had their parents at the ceremony were Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuuga. There were not many assumptions made about why Shino's father had not shown up, he had been sent on a tracking mission to Suna to investigate some shinobi that were possibly causing a disturbance of peace around the fire country borders.

Hinata's father Hiashi was the one brought into question why he was not present at the ceremony. The assumptions for his excuse that were made included a possibly Hyuuga clan council meeting, a personal meeting with the Hokage or a secret mission that many of the citizens did not know about until now.

This did not deter Hinata at all from socializing with the parents and students of her classmates. Many did show respect to her as the Hyuuga heiress and the heiress to one of the most important clans in Konoha. Shino on the other hand was not socializing with his peers and stuck like a wallflower to the back wall.

Iruka had noticed all but two of his students had arrived and both were the most likely to skip the ceremony because they did not feel it was necessary to the education of their progression into shinobi.

At the moment he thought about that, Naruto Uzumaki had walked into the classroom and had been noticed by nearly every soul in the classroom.

Naruto noticed this development that everybody was know looking at him and he was not pleased about this.

_'Can the stares of all these people just go away. I do not want to deal with the beatings and anger today. This is the one-day that I do not want to have this happen to me. I already have to go to this stupid ceremony and now I have to deal with the anxiety of having all these people staring at me like I am some caged animal'_.

The predominant thought when Naruto walked into the room was negative among the parents that were citizens and most of the students did not have too many kind thoughts about him but there were shinobi that respected Naruto for the burden that he had to carry. These same shinobi were the ones who knew he had an immense amount of strength to tap into if he somehow discovered it. Many of the shinobi knew also that he could be the most powerful shinobi in the village if given experience and time, but this led to a rivalry of those who wanted to suppress his power among some other shinobi or let him grow and see if he could harness the power to control the Kyuubi no Kitsune and lead Konoha into a prosperous era. However, there was one person who had a thought beyond the level of respect and even greater than it.

_'Naruto-kun is finally here, maybe this will be the day that I get to talk to him and understand why he is being so much more different than he used to be. I like this quieter version of Naruto as well though, it reminds me that he is most likely a thoughtful person and would be a great person to be around. Part of me misses the loud prankster Naruto that would create funny scenes that we would all be able to laugh at.'_

That was the thought of the Hyuuga heiress as she noticed Naruto take a seat at the back of the classroom, away from the majority of the people. She was confused on why Naruto kept taking the back of the classroom seat this year, as opposed to the one that he took in the middle of the classroom next to Sasuke and Sakura.

Speaking of that pink-haired person, her and her mother had the same exact reaction to Naruto's appearance.

_'Look at that baka, he will never compare to the shinobi of this village. Him being in the same classroom is a disrespectful gesture to me that I have to be around trash like him.'_

Naruto was getting the attention of most of the villagers until Sasuke Uchiha had walked into the classroom. Immediately the faces of the citizens and almost all of the female students had brightened because of the arrival of the Uchiha clan heir. Sasuke on the other hand, was not very excited to be in this position. He hated this as much as Naruto did and just wanted to be gone from this social gathering. Sasuke needed to be strong, not socially adept and he knew that.

Naruto on the other hand was thankful for the arrival of Sasuke. The arrival of Sasuke means that eyes were taken off him and put onto the "future savior of the village" and last Uchiha heir.

Iruka being the smart and observant man he is, noticed that everybody that was important was there and the celebration was to begin now.

"Let's begin the celebration, everybody put on your hitai-ate's now, you are proud shinobi of Konoha." Iruka beamed with joy, knowing another class had just graduated from the academy.

All of the students put on their hitai-ate's at the same time and now the room was nearly full with citizens with hitai-ate's on. The few citizen parents that were not shinobi were now looking like the odd people because they did not have the shinobi hitai-ate.

_'All of the students are destined for greatness. This is one of the best classes that I have ever taught, no matter how the teams shake up I will be confident that every person here will be relevant in the future of Konoha history.'_

While Iruka was beaming at all the students, Mizuki occupied with the questions and greetings that all the parents gave him, none of them noticed a black flash disappear from the classroom.

If you asked the teachers who they thought it was, they would have likely both said Sasuke left already because he did not want to talk but they would both be wrong. With the dark flash disappeared Naruto Uzumaki from the scene.

_'They never said I had to stay, just be present to attend the first few minutes of the ceremony to put on the hitai-ate to symbolize I am a shinobi of Konohagakure. I do not want to be there anyway, all the parents will just stare at me like I have some sort of disease and their kids won't even talk to me anyway. I would be sitting there all alone in the corner with nobody to talk to. Rejected and alone, I have better things to do than be ignored by society.' _Naruto thought as he was speeding away quickly for the academy. While doing this, Naruto hoped that Mizuki or Iruka did not notice that he had left until later and luckily for our blond headed protagonist only Iruka noticed. Iruka knew what Naruto was up to anyway.

(Meanwhile in the classroom)

The room had mainly separated into two different sections, shinobi and citizens. The children of citizens were with their parents in one group while the shinobi section was nearly all-together. This was just a product of being raised in a shinobi village; the citizens had the tendency to talk to each other while the shinobi had the tendency to group together. However, there was a rarity that existed that talked to the opposite group.

The shinobi group was currently talked about the rumors of who the jonin-sensei were going to be while the citizen group were talking about trade and making ryo. The students meanwhile were lumped together talking among themselves.

"So who have you heard about being a jonin-sensei?" asked Inoichi Yamanaka, if any family was to know the juicy gossip before any other it would be his family. However, there had been a hush-hush tendency about the jonin-sensei until the council met to discuss team placement.

"Tsume, is Hana going to attempt to become a jonin-sensei this year?" asked Choza Akimichi with great curiosity.

"Hana is but a young pup, she is not ready for the responsibility of being a jonin-sensei and will remain a chunin. She will be ready to take on a team in a few years but until then she will remain working with our nin dogs." Said Tsume Inuzuka.

This baffled the rest of the shinobi section of the council who in a few hours were going to make a decision on what genin teams were going to be. The shinobi council was now wondering who the selections were for new jonin-sensei. There had been hush-hush selections in the past (namely Itachi Uchiha and Orochimaru) but none as quiet as this.

There was a true meaning about this celebration that was unaware to most of the citizens and all of the students. Iruka knew and Mizuki did as well but the real reason there was a ceremony was because this gave the shinobi council (the ones who would be picking teams with the Hokage) to look how the students interacted with each other, who was going to complement each other on a team and who just could not stand each other.

By watching the young students in their own environments, the council could make good decisions on teams and who to place with each other. There was one flaw to this rule however; everybody had to be present for at least a short period of time in order to get a good reading on who needed to be with whom. If there were not a person who abides by that standard then Iruka would have to judge who that person would work well with and how they would compliment the skills of another student.

The council was currently talking about some shinobi matter to all of the students but in disguise they were sharing observations with each other about how people interacted with each other. They would discuss the observations later with the Hokage (who was watching through the crystal ball) and then they would put teams together.

"Troublesome" muttered Shikaku Nara

"Uzumaki is not here, he seems to have disappeared somewhere.," said Shikaku.

"He has a tendency to disappear during these social occasions." butted in Iruka from the side.

The council now had a curveball thrown at them, Naruto was a good student now but was lazy and stupid earlier in his shinobi career, they did not know where to place him and now he was even more of a wildcard since he relatively worked well with nobody.

"Naruto Uzumaki is just making this so troublesome. These blondes, they make it so troublesome." said Shikaku Nara. This earned him a glare from a certain Yamanka.

Everybody just nodded their head because they understood the repercussions of Uzumaki's actions and how they would affect the decisions on teams.

**(Later that night at the council meeting for team placement)**

The Shinobi council was beginning to form in the meeting building inside of the building of that housed the Hokage's office. The Hokage was currently still attending to his own matters that involved the village and would not be present for another ten to fifteen minutes. Among those who filed in early were Danzo, Homura, Koharu, Choza Akimichi and Hiashi Hyuuga (who still had not explained why he was absent from the ceremony earlier that day).

The shinobi council was mainly just thinking about what was about to happen, they were going to efface some friendships that the students had made and create some new ones. This was nothing new to this council, they had done this for several graduating classes now since the Uchiha clan slaughtering and nothing had gone wrong in the past. There had been no favoritism of any students in past graduating classes but that could all change with this graduating class.

This graduating class had the sons and daughters of many clan heads and many of them were going to become clan heads or heiresses themselves. Many thought that there likely was going to be great debates and favoritism among the ranks here because of family lineage.

All of the shinobi council knew there were going to be two other big issues in this class. The first issue being that the last Uchiha, Sasuke Uchiha was graduating and was the top student of his class. This means that he would be paired with the last student (Kiba Inuzuka) under the normal rankings. It was expected by many of the shinobi that Tsume Inuzuka was going to fight for her child to not be put onto a team with Sasuke Uchiha, as the Inuzuka's were vehemently against the Uchiha clan, even before the slaughter and potential takeover.

The second issue was that Naruto Uzumaki, the container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune was present in the graduating class. The problem was that Naruto was going to be the top student on his team due to his class ranking of third. Most of the council were banking on that he would be a lower ranked student (if he passed at all) so in case of an attack, there would be a strong genin and jonin present to take down the Kyuubi chakra infused genin.

This could be either a long, tedious and argumentative team selection or it could be short, peaceful and quick. Each shinobi that was going to enter the room had their own personal agendas so this was likely to be a long meeting that could run into the later parts of the night.

As many shinobi snapped out of their own thoughts or side chats that had formed, the Sandaime Hokage walked into the room with folders in his hand that probably incased the prospective jonin-sensei's, another issue but smaller since predictability could somewhat be there and it was a hush-hush situation.

"I'm calling this order of the shinobi council to discuss the prospective teams of the new graduating class from the Konoha academy" stated the Hokage as he sat down into his chair at the head of the table, facing directly across from Danzo Shimura.

The silence of the room let the Hokage know he could continue on with his speech before the voting and team placement began.

"Now before I reveal who the jonin-sensei's are and who I think should be on teams, I would like to know that nobody is going to try to display favoritism to any of the genin's in the graduating class. I know many of you have sons or daughters in this class that has been called 'The Future of Konoha' but I request that you hold your favoritism in and to a minimal for this meeting." Finished the Hokage.

"If everybody agrees upon that matter then I see nothing holding us back from beginning the meeting"

Everybody silently nodded their heads and that was the Sandaime's cue to begin opening the folders of those who had requested a genin team for the upcoming graduating class, and it was a long list.

"Alright, I am holding off the jonin until we have decided on who the three genin per team are going to be." Stated the Sandaime.

"I would also like at this time to open the floor to Shikaku Nara on his observations from the ceremony today" Sandaime said as he gestured for Shikaku Nara to stand up and present the observations that he noticed at today's ceremony.

"All the students looked as if they were willing to be on the same team, there were the usual happenings like Kiba Inuzuka clashing with Sasuke Uchiha and nobody wanting to speak with Naruto Uzumaki. There was also one big factor with Uzumaki that was noticeable."

"That kid always makes things a pain to work with," stated Hotaru, rudely interrupting Shikaku Nara to get his statement across.

"Naruto Uzumaki left the ceremony early to go somewhere, nobody was able to find him after the ceremony and he left immediately after arriving. This throws a wretch into our discussion because of Uzumaki's unpredictable history and his newer personality." Finished Shikaku Nara.

"I have to give it to that kid though, he was clever enough to be there for the mandatory meeting but he left immediately after. He broke no rules and there will be no punishment because of that. He used the rules to his advantage and left there after." Stated the Hokage, giving his thoughts on the matter.

"That is mainly all Hokage-san, there was nothing of great importance with this class, and it is a more peaceful class than those of the past." Stated Shikaku Nara, confident that he did not miss anything with this graduating class.

"I am proposing that we abandon the current format of teams for this graduating class, making it an exception then going back to the same format in future classes." Said the Hokage.

"I second that motion, this is a special graduating class and there needs to be change and flexibility with the regulations of the past for this special class" Interjected Danzo Shimura.

Everybody was stunned at the revelation from Danzo, most expected Danzo to rally besides the Hokage's immediate council to keep teams, as they would be if the graduating standings existed. This would have placed Sasuke on the top team and Naruto on one of the lower one's because of his class ranking. There were two things many knew about Danzo, he favored Sasuke and looked down upon Naruto. He was one of the proponents of Sasuke's 'king like' status in the village and Naruto's pariah image. This was mainly because Danzo was one of the citizens' council's favorite shinobi and thus had a lot of leverage with them.

Well they thought they knew everything about Danzo but he kept a few thoughts secret. The Uzumaki boy was making good progress on becoming an emotionless weapon already. There would be no need to attempt to contact him if he could indirectly manipulate him into one.

"Is everybody in agreement that the team rankings should be null and void for this graduating class?" asked the Hokage to the council.

A chorus of "Hai's" was all that were heard from the people in the room so it was unanimous that the rankings were thrown out.

The one folder that the Hokage was tossed to the side, presumably with the team selections if the class ranking system was used alone with the perspective jonin's for each team.

"Well then, I am going to state who I think should be each team."

The Hokage went from teams 1-6 with most of the civilians students being on them then arrived at team 7, took a huge sigh and began his recommendations of teams.

"Team 7 would be Kiba Inuzuka, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno," the Hokage said, waiting for somebody to interrupt him and that didn't take long.

"No way, Kiba will not be on a team with the great Uchiha" spat out Tsume Inuzuka in a flare of anger. She did not want her son to be on a team with the Uchiha after seeing how they were going to betray Konoha and produced one of the most infamous S-ranked shinobi that defected from Konohagakure.

"Inuzuka-san could you please let Hokage-san finish up his listing of prospective teams before arguing why the teams are incorrect in your eyes" stated Hiashi Hyuuga with a cold, calm yet arrogant voice.

"Now could you please continue Hokage-san, the rest of us are waiting in anticipation of the other teams." Stated Hiashi with great eloquence.

"Team 8 would be Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuuga and Danzo's apprentice Sai," stated the Hokage, drawing more shock from the crowd.

"Team 9 is in use right now from last year with Might Guy as the leader of Neji Hyuuga, Tenten and Rock Lee. Team 10 would be Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara and Chouji Akimichi." The Hokage was confirming that the Ino-Shika-Cho trio would be back for another generation since it worked so good the past generation.

"Now if you are wondering where Naruto Uzumaki falls within this, he is an apprentice under a special shinobi that I contacted for training him both on containing the Kyuubi's chakra and learning new shinobi techniques. I learned a great deal about how the Kyuubi works from our previous two containers' notes and I feel that this would be the best method possible for team placement as well as containing the Kyuubi's chakra."

"Could you at least tell us who you have contacted about being the tutor of Uzumaki?" inquired Homura.

"I contacted a certain jonin about filling that role." Stated the Hokage simply.

"No, I am afraid that I am going to have to disagree with that team placement. Unless the Hokage is going to state who the jonin is then I don't agree with Naruto being on his own" Stated Danzo.

"This person did not want to be named Danzo." Replied the Hokage.

"Forgive me Hokage for my outburst earlier but I also have to interject and disapprove in this because I do not want my son on a team with the Uchiha heir. It is well known that the Inuzuka and the Uchiha clans do not cooperate well with each other and I feel that this would be the case with my son on the same team with Sasuke. It would hinder the development of all three of the genin under their jonin-sensei." Tsume Inuzuka finished.

"I would agree with Inuzuka-san's statement. I feel that the development of all three genin would be hindered by the conflict present." Stated Homura.

Shibi Aburame, who had returned that night, made a noticeable gesture that he agreed with the two statements that were made before.

"I would like to make a second point that I will continue tutoring my apprentice Sai, he in no way should be eligible for being on a genin and is still lacking development in some shinobi departments that I am looking to fix." Danzo stated with passion, trying to make sure he would keep one of his prized shinobi of the ROOT.

The Hokage stared at Danzo for a few seconds and if dramatic effects were applicable to the situation then sparks would have flown from the eyes of both the rivals.

"Permission granted Danzo, but I want a full update on Sai's progression every month in my inbox" stated the Hokage with finality.

"Thank you Hokage-san, you will not regret that decision"

"I make a motion that would abolish the teams that were suggested by the Hokage" stated Koharu.

Another chorus of Hai's were presented as the Hokage's teams were abolished and the floor was opened again for discussion.

"I propose that the Ino-Shika-Cho trio would remain a team Hokage-san" spoke up the previously silent Choza Akimichi.

"I second that motion, the observations that I made earlier would indicate that our children would have the same type of relationship that was formed by the three of us even though it is 2 males and 1 female instead of 3 males." Stated a troubled Nara; he had to look out for Shikamaru, even if it meant being chastised by the council. This was just so troublesome for him.

The Hokage nodded and signaled that he wanted the council to vote on the previous motion.

Many agreed with that motion and only 2 people disagreed with that motion.

"Team 10 will be formed as Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka and Chouji Akimichi. Jonin's will be chosen after the selection process of genin are completed." Stated the Hokage.

Collective sighs could be heard from the Ino-Shika-Cho trio and even a high five could be observed as Inoichi and Choza Akimichi were pleased by the results that their labor had just produced.

The rest of the clan heads could taste the tension in the air, both Uzumaki and Uchiha had still yet to be placed on teams.

"Moving for team 7 to be placed as Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki and team 8 to be placed as Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuuga." Stated Koharu.

"I second" gasped out Homura quickly, swiftly moving the process to voting before anybody else could argue the points.

"I open for arguments to be made on those teams," stated the Hokage, knowing exactly what his council was trying to pull.

"Hokage-san, I respectably motion for only votes to be made as the night is growing older and the council would like some sleep," stated Homura, trying to use the pull that he had on the council.

"I would respectably have to disagree with the teams you have suggested" Danzo interjected.

Many of the shinobi in the room were stunned again at what Danzo just stated. Danzo was usually a force to be reckoned with when he teamed up with Koharu and Homura during council meetings. However, tonight those three could not agree on anything and virtually had no pull in any of the subject that was presented.

_'I wonder what he is planning. He usually will not against my advisors orders unless he has some underlying motivation to do so and that is a rarity'_ thought the Hokage.

"I suggest that the teams should have one minor switch to their balance. I am proposing that Hinata Hyuuga and Sakura Haruno be switched from teams. My logic behind this is that both kekkei-genkei would be focused on team 7's Naruto Uzumaki in case he loses control of the Kyuubi and begins to attack the village." Stated Danzo with a smug look on the face.

_'I just shocked the council but this will also make the teacher favorite the other two students because of their bloodlines. I'm not going to point that out and I am the only one smart enough to think of that. Koharu and Homura will agree with me and so would the rest of the council. Most of the council knows that Hinata has a crush on Naruto anyway, so I can also use that in my defense if they try to use my bloodline theory against me.'_ Danzo thought, he knew that he had the council in checkmate right now. His teams would prevail because of Haruno's inability to fight against a 'Kyuubified' Naruto in case of an attack. Playing off the fears of others was just so easy.

However, it wasn't meant to be today.

"I don't agree at all with that assessment with all due respect. I believe that team is too stacked with talent. Hinata doesn't make sense with Naruto because she is a close range taijutsu fighter on a long range ninjutsu team," stated Homura.

"Hyuuga-san do you have any reason to be dissatisfied with these teams?" questioned Danzo, knowing that Hiashi could be a pain if he did not agree with this.

"No I am fine with the teams that you proposed. The logic behind Hinata being on team 8 is stronger than that for being on team 7." Calmly stated Hiashi, knowing that her destiny would now be changed due to his uncaring attitude towards what team she would be placed on.

"If any changes needed to be made then it would be putting Kiba Inuzuka on team 7 and switching him with Naruto Uzumaki," stated Homura

"No, I vote team 7 for being Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha," quickly replied Tsume Inuzuka.

_'I don't hate you Naruto and I know you are going to hate that team placement. I'm sorry but Kiba and Sasuke will not be on the same team at any cost'_ thought Tsume to herself.

_'Ha, it's so easy playing off the doggy. It's like a little puppy with a bone'_ thought Homura.

The Hokage had to wait a few minutes because he was still pondering what Danzo was trying to get out of this.

"I suppose these team placements will work, Hiashi did not have any conflict with these placements and I see no flaws why they do not work," The Hokage warily said while trying to get a final analysis of Danzo's plans. These plans came up with no results and the Hokage gave up on trying.

"All who rule in favor with these team placements say "Hai", and this will be the team placements for the genin class of Konoha." Stated the Hokage with finality, hoping everybody agreed.

Another chorus of Hai later and the last thing to be discussed was the placement of jonin-sensei for each team.

"In these folders contains the names for all the jonin-sensei candidates that submitted for a genin team. Each for different purposes and motives but they all submitted and are somewhat qualified for the position."

"I will now begin reading out the names of those who submitted, after each name I will want opinions from you on why they should or should not be a candidate for the position of jonin-sensei."

"The first candidate is my own son Asuma Sarutobi," stated the Hokage.

The room went silent for a few seconds; the quick stares wandering around until somebody finally gave in and started to talk.

"I feel that he would make a great candidate for a teacher, he has no problems in his past and he has a very rare elemental affinity that could potentially be passed on to another Konoha shinobi at a young age." Stated Shikaku Nara.

"His element is the only thing I have a concern about, although he does have katon element techniques, the futon is a rare element in Konoha and only one shinobi has the power to use it with another possibly having an affinity to it. That is the only flaw I see in letting him teach younger genin, he makes a good candidate and has my approval.," said Danzo.

The whole room agreed and Asuma Sarutobi was selected as a candidate for the jonin-sensei. After a debate that took an hour, both Kakashi Hatake and Kurenai Yuhi were also chosen to become jonin-sensei. Kakashi would be the sensei for team 7, Kurenai team 8 and Asuma for team 10. The mysterious jonin who the Hokage wanted to put with Naruto remained nameless.

Much speculation came about in the council that Kakashi was using the jonin-sensei position for fulfilling the last requirement to submit his name for the position of Hokage after the current Hokage retired or died in combat. Kakashi had easily won over the favor of the shinobi council even though he really did not do to please them at all.

The meeting then adjourned after discussing a few minor discrepancies and some details about upcoming border duty for Konoha. The shinobi council could finally rest their heads on beds and go to sleep knowing they did the best job for Konoha and the future shinobi. Well, they thought they did but it wasn't all cheery for the Konoha council.

'_The process of being stagnant, it's what kills a village from the inside out. I must prevent Konoha from becoming stagnant. Tonight's meeting, only proved we are getting complacent and are one step closer to our inevitable fall. We must delay the fall for as long as possible to survive. Konoha will live forever.' _

**(The next day in the classroom for team selection)**

Iruka and Mizuki were already in the classroom waiting for the students to come in. Both teachers had already thought about future teams and had their ideas of who was going to be on what team, they did not know the sensei's of each team yet but they were sure to find out when Iruka would finally be able to open the folder labeled as 'classified'.

**(At Naruto's apartment)**

Naruto was just waking up and it was about thirty minutes before the team placement announcements were going to be announced. Naruto was not enthusiastic about the prospect of having to work on a team and would have rather had an apprenticeship with a higher leveled shinobi. Naruto despised team work and would rather finish missions on his own because either people would get into his way, hinder or skew the mission in a way that he would get injured or murdered.

In Naruto's defense, having an unstable childhood like he did leaves a person to not have a general trust for people. Having the citizens spit on everything he accomplished as a child was preventing him from taking any pride in his accomplishments. So when Naruto actually did something (like learning two C-ranked jutsus, only one known by the general masses) he would never get recognition for his hard work.

_'It does not matter what the villagers do now; I am a shinobi of Konoha who has a message that needs to be spread to the shinobi world. It is my destiny to carry the shinobi lands upon my back as I will lead them into an era where all the countries are unified and I am their leader.'_ Thought Naruto as he was trying to get enough courage to face the people that will stare at him and talk about him behind his back.

_'I will unify the people under a banner of acceptance through my first hand knowledge. It will be a universal sentiment that everybody shares. Once they taste how acceptance feels as a population, they won't be able to resist the sweetness of it.' _Remembered Naruto, now having the courage to walk to the academy through the stares and talking.

Naruto exited his apartment with a determined look on his face, the beginning of destiny was upon him and the sun was shining on his face just as it was on Konohagakure.

**(Streets of Konoha)**

Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno were currently both walking to the academy with cross looks on their face at their rival. Both had the same objective in their mind as they walked to school.

_'Love will overpower all and I will be put on the same team as Sasuke-kun'_ thought both of the love struck girls at the same time.

Sadly if both girls were a little more observant then they would have realized that Sasuke was not interested in either of them and that he did not want either one of them on his team.

Ino Yamanaka had more clues than anybody that she would not be on Sasuke's team. Even though her infatuation with Sasuke was strong, the relationship with her family was stronger than that and rightfully so.

Inoichi was in a very good mood after returning from the council meeting and for some reason Ino was up past her bedtime. The meeting stretched into the later hours of the night and it was nearly midnight when the shinobi were returning to their living quarters. Ino noticed that her father was happy and she asked him why but his response was "it is nothing of importance right now but it will likely become very important in the near future".

Inoichi said that with a smile on his face and Ino did not know what to think of that but she just brushed it off as family business, thus really not having anything to do with her.

Both girls had tried to get under each other's skin with insults and verbal jabs until they reached the academy and then they rushed into the building. Both still had the same objective, to sit next to Sasuke and get him to notice them.

They both were shocked to realize that Sasuke was not there at the present time and his usual seat remained unoccupied along with his whole row. In fact, Ino and Sakura were among the first to school along with Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuuga, Chouji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara (although he was sleeping). They both sat down in the row usually occupied for Sasuke and whomever he was sitting by that day. Sakura got the closest seat to where Sasuke usually sat.

The students began filing in until they were all there with Kiba being the last one that came into the classroom. Iruka and Mizuki were standing in front of the classroom with smiles on their faces as they pulled out the document from the 'classified' folder and began reading the names of the students and their new teams. The classroom was not on edge until they reached team 7.

"Team 7 will be under the jonin leadership of Kakashi Hatake with students Sasuke Uchiha.."

The air in the classroom suddenly got very thin and the students were all listening because this was likely going to be one of the most powerful teams to come out of the academy in some time.

"Sakura Haruno"

"Yes!" Sakura shouted loudly.

Ino put her head in her hands knowing that she had lost a battle to her rival for the love of Sasuke Uchiha.

_'Don't care'_ thought Sasuke grimly.

"And Naruto Uzumaki"

The classroom went silent as most of the students now thought the team had a flaw in Naruto. In reality, this was the most stacked team to come out of the Konoha academy in some time even surpassing Itachi Uchiha's team (mainly because Itachi was so good, fluent and smooth with his battle style). Sasuke and Naruto could become a force to be reckoned with for years to come. Both long-range fighters and both could do major damage without having to engage the enemies in taijutsu at all.

_'What was the council thinking? This is one of the most stacked teams that I have seen ever come out of the academy. Sasuke is the only one in the village with the Sharingan and Naruto is a chakra monster. Both already know C-Rank techniques for crying out loud. I thought they would have divided them to make 2 teams stronger.' _Thought a perplexed and dumbfounded Iruka.

Ino Yamanaka was totally crushed, she would not have the chance to talk or be with Sasuke Uchiha on a daily basis. Worst of all, her love rival was on that team. She didn't think it was a total loss, as Naruto was on that team.

Hinata Hyuuga was also crushed. She would no longer have the chance to be with Naruto anymore.

"Team 8 will be under the jonin leadership of Kurenai Yuhi and is formed of genin Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame" stated Iruka, still perplexed at the power of team 7.

"Team 9 is already in use so team 10 will be under the jonin leadership of Asuma Sarutobi with genin Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara and Chouji Akimichi." Iruka took a deep breath as he had finally finished.

Chouji and Shikamaru were happy about this as the best friends would be on the same team and see each other every day. Ino was still dejected about not being on the same team as Sasuke but took some happiness in the fact that she was going to be apart of the second generation formation of the Ino-Shika-Cho group.

Iruka announced that those would be the teams and told everybody that he wished everybody the best with their shinobi teams and that their new life was beginning. He and Mizuki told everybody that the jonin-sensei were going to be arriving soon and that they would be taking all of the students to a meeting place. Iruka and Mizuki then left to go back to the academy classrooms in order to make an appearance at a younger class that was going to graduate in the future.

The jonin then began to file in, the first being a jonin with a sword that was attached to his hip that coughed a lot, he took team 4 and the waiting game began for each sensei.

After thirty minutes and many teams later taken, only team 7 was left waiting for their sensei.

None of the teammates moved. It was total silence in the room and Sakura felt awkward. In the silence, she was telling herself to be strong in the presence of Naruto and Sasuke.

Finally the door opened for the final time and a silver haired man with a book walked into the classroom. He had silver hair that spiked up in the air like it was defying gravity itself and a mask over his face to disguise the lower part of his mouth including his nose, jaw and mouth.

"Meet me up on the top of the academy building in five minutes," said the jonin as he left in a swirl of leaves that contained lightning bolts.

The three students got up simultaneously and left for the rooftop, promptly getting to the location in little under five minutes by just walking.

"Now that we are all here, I would like to introduce myself. I am Kakashi Hatake, your jonin-sensei and future instructor if you choose to take the way of a shinobi." Stated Kakashi to his students.

"Now as a part of the introduction process, tell me about yourselves, something that you like and dislike and possibly a dream for the future. I will start," continued Kakashi.

**"I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate... I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future... never really thought about it. As for my hobbies... I have lots of hobbies."** Kakashi said with a smile on his face as evidenced by the one visible eye that was closed. That was the only evidence of Kakashi smiling though.

"You first pinky." Kakashi said with an aloft voice. Sakura growled due to that nickname.

**"My name is Sakura Haruno, I like a certain guy (looks at Sasuke). I don't like people who are creepy (looks at Naruto) and Ino! My dream is to become a strong shinobi and a great mother one day."** Sakura finished while blushing about her future with Sasuke.

_A crush on the Uchiha, color me surprised!'_ Kakashi sarcastically thought to himself.

"You are next Uchiha."

**"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, and kill a certain someone."** Stated Sasuke with a grim look on his face.

_'An avenger complex, this is a unique team pairing. He doesn't even seem to care about Sakura's crush, either that or he doesn't acknowledge it.'_ quipped Kakashi

"You're last Uzumaki."

"**My name is Naruto Uzumaki. As with the rest of humanity, there are things that I like and hate. My dream? Well I have many dreams but hopefully I'll be able to unite them all one day. That would be nice wouldn't it? **

'_What did I learn about him again?'_ thought the 3 people surrounding Naruto.

"This is certainly going to be interesting," Kakashi stated as he smiled with his eye closed. Although he looked to be smiling, Kakashi was extremely wary on the inside.

* * *

There you have it, the second chapter of Acceptance. Hope everybody enjoyed it. Thank you for being patient with the timing and for reading the story. Remember that Drowning in Darkness will have it's first chapter uploaded before the third chapter of this story is written. It shouldn't take terribly long, probably around the same time (2-3 weeks) before chapter three of this story is uploaded. Drowning in Darkness will be about a week away. I have roughly half of the first chapter uploaded. Thank you again.

-anhedoniac.


	3. Chapter 3: Fractured

It's been a while guys and gals, I've been extremely busy since the last chapter but here is Chapter 3. I realize that some are not happy with the team selections but they are here for a purpose and that is character development. I'm guessing I think I know who some people want on this team and they will get their chance to be here, I promise you that.

"Human Talk"

**"Demonic Talk, Screaming or Important things"**

_'Thoughts'_

**(Period of Time)** indicates a scene break

***1 year ago*** Flashbacks

**Jutsu**

Anyway here is chapter 3 of Acceptance.

* * *

_**Acceptance Chapter 3: Fractured**_

Kakashi knew that he was treading through extremely thin ice. The emotional stability of this team was something to be questioned.

_'Sakura will go down in agony instantly when Sasuke gets injured. If Sasuke is outperformed by anybody then Sasuke will erupt in rage with his inferiority complex. Naruto is a complete mystery but he seems to be somewhat mentally stable. However, I know nothing about him so he might not actually be completely stable.'_

Kakashi continued thinking as he had already dismissed team 7 to their houses. He was supposed to give them a survival test but this team had an exception and didn't have to take it. Kakashi thought back to how this situation came up.

***Flashback***

"Kakashi, we have understood that you have failed every team previously put before you." Said the Hokage.

"Yes, those students were not ready to be exposed to the world of the shinobi." Stated Kakashi.

"I know that your survival test encompasses everything that shinobi should learn in terms of teamwork but this team you are receiving is special." Quickly stated Homura, trying to get his/her point through.

"These students you are receiving do not have to go through the survival test. The council has already found them good enough to become genin on their own." Koharu, the third and last member of the council stated.

"Why? Shouldn't every team have to go through a test? What makes this team so special?" Kakashi was dumbfounded. No team had ever gone through without having to take a test.

"We understand Kakashi but these children have proven to be special. You are receiving the team of Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki. Do you see why it is imperative that these students are made genin already?" stated the Hokage.

"I have seen the files on this class. I see why this team is together and why the rules for team selection were thrown out." Said Team 7's new leader.

"Thank you Kakashi for understanding. These students are completely capable of your test and they need to move on to being genin, especially the Uchiha. It is a priority that he becomes strong for the sake of Konoha." Stated Koharu with a matter-of-fact tone.

"You are dismissed Kakashi, go meet your team." Stated the Hokage.

Kakashi left the Hokage's office, for once he was truly late instead of making a dumb excuse about it.

***End flashback***

Strength didn't mean everything and Kakashi Hatake knew that. One strong shinobi could easily be overcome by two shinobi that work well together. He had no pull against the council but prayed that his team would learn how to work together through D-ranked missions.

_'If they do not learn how to work together properly, then they are going to end up dead and team 7 will be regarded as one of the greatest failure in Konoha's history.'_ Thought Kakashi.

Kakashi knew that he had a lot to live up to and the pressure was on.

**(Konoha: Red Light District)**

Naruto was walking through this district because it was one of the routes that did not cause him to run into the stares of the middle class villagers. Those villagers were especially hateful to Naruto but he did not completely understand why.

Despite being able to avoid those hateful stares, Naruto did not particularly like this district either. Sure it had the same outer look as Naruto's apartment, it was run down and one assumed that scum lived there. Naruto had always gotten through the district without too much suspicion, he didn't know the reason but as long as the villagers did not pester him, then he wouldn't complain too much.

He didn't know about how the prostitutes would have illegitimate children and they would come to this section to potentially "see" their mothers.

The difference was that somebody who would accept people for who they were, but tried to unite them and open their perspectives at the same time filled Naruto's house. Sure the prostitutes would accept the people for who they were because of money, but they generally caused discord in the lives of many. For Naruto, this could be a save haven from the other districts of Konoha but at the same time they tear families apart and prey on the desires of the weak.

Naruto finally found out what this district was one day during sexual education. The students had been taught sexual education at the age of 10 and had been advised to stay away from that section of Konoha. Naruto could never look at this place the same after that.

At the same time, they were still people who were trying to create a living and some of that was because they were unable to get a proper education or did not have enough money through other jobs available to make a living. Naruto still couldn't shake the feeling of ripping another person's life apart, it seemed so cruel to him. Despite that, there was a part of him that enjoyed that, stating there was incentive to do so because the person wanted the sex.

"Hey little boy, you looking for a good time this early in the day?" a random prostitute on the side of the street stated.

Naruto wondered why the prostitute was offering to solicit sex to him but then remembered he was now a genin of Konoha. Naruto remembered that once you were genin, then you bypassed any law surrounding age because of your position.

Naruto stopped for a second; thinking of something and then approached the prostitute.

"How much do you have on you?" asked the prostitute.

Naruto thought for a moment. He could try to escape from the situation quickly but gathered some courage to talk to the woman and ask her a question.

"I'm not looking for sex but could you entertain a question from me?" asked Naruto, hoping that she would say yes.

"Sure, I don't see why not? I don't have any business right now." Stated the prostitute.

"When you are having sex with one of your customers, if they have a family, could you please think of how they would react to the act that you are doing with their husband or dad?" Naruto said before turning on his heel and immediately leaving.

The prostitute thought about those words for the rest of the day. One of her current customers showed up that night, she knew that he had a daughter that he loved with all of his heart because he had mentioned it to her on several occasions. The man was looking for sex that night but the prostitute could not give it to him. After he stormed out of her house (close to the red light district), she broke down and cried. She finally realized how much pain her profession caused people.

Naruto would not realize this until later but he had changed somebody and caused peace in one person's heart. The acceptance of the situation had changed a life.

**(Uchiha compound)**

Sasuke Uchiha was currently training his ninjutsu.

**"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu"**

Sasuke spit out a fireball that was recommended in the jutsu and it burned a training target to ashes. Sasuke was pleased about the development of this jutsu but then began thinking about his new teammates.

_'Sakura is just a useless fangirl that obsesses over me but Naruto is a mystery. I don't know what or who Naruto is and it bothers me.'_

For somebody who didn't have the "all seeing eyes" Sasuke Uchiha was a person that did not like unknown situations. This was ironic for a perspective shinobi but after the Uchiha massacre, many different facets of his personality changed.

Unfortunately for Sasuke, there was not a lot he knew about. All that Sasuke did know is that Naruto and Sakura would be his teammates with Kakashi being his jonin-sensei. He also knew that they would have some missions starting tomorrow.

Sasuke sighed to himself before training himself until he collapsed. If he went soft on his training, then he would never beat Itachi.

**(Haruno Household)**

Sakura was starting to get ready for bed. She was reflecting how the events of today had changed the future of her life. She was extremely happy that she was placed on the same team as Sasuke but the presence of Naruto bothered her. He was such a mystery and he had the personality that resembled a light switch.

Naruto had one side that was extremely quiet, doesn't interact with others and would rather be left to his own devices. She reasoned that it was a little more timid version of Sasuke's personality. However, there were times where Naruto gathered up some courage and could become the exact opposite of those personality traits that most thought he was.

_'It's so confusing. I have to work with him now as well. I don't know how to approach him and then interact with him. He seems to only interact when he feels like it.'_ Sakura thought to herself, trying to obtain a solution.

_**'Cha! You know that he's still got the spirit of that young child who played some of the funniest pranks in the history of Konoha'**_ Inner Sakura chimed in her thoughts.

Sakura fell asleep with her mind-racing full of thoughts about her team. She was excited, apprehensive and most importantly nervous about the missions that would begin tomorrow.

**(Hokage Monument)**

Naruto Uzumaki was all by his lonesome. He had the day to himself and he did some necessary things in order to survive but not much in the department of shinobi work. He looked over the village as it was entering dusk, the sun was beginning to drop and the lights of the village were beginning to permeate the somewhat dark sky.

'Everything I have ever wanted has become mine so far. Sure I never had any people to rely on for family or support but I've turned out just fine so far. I do not need other people, I have myself and as long as I have myself, I am going to unite people of all nations when I become the greatest shinobi known to mankind.'

Naruto gazed along the "skyline" of Konoha, viewing the different locations he could see from the top of the village. He could see the Hokage's office, with some lights on, indicating the Hokage was still hard at work for the village's benefit. The red light district had more lights than the rest of the village currently; the prostitutes were beginning to gather their nightly customers. Naruto scoffed at the thought of those women and reflected on his interaction today. He smiled as he was thinking about it; he noted how he gathered courage and he received a positive result.

Who knows? With more positive reinforcement, he might be able to become a little bit more outgoing.

Naruto laughed to himself as he scanned the clan sectors of the village and then the business district.

_'I once wanted to become the Hokage of this village, but why stop at the position of Hokage? Sure the Hokage has great influence but it's very centralized to the location. The Fire Daimyo has more pull in the world than the Hokage. Hokage just oversees the military operations of the village. To rule everything from the Hokage position would mean that Konoha has enslaved the rest of the shinobi world.'_

Naruto knew that he was unwilling to enslave the rest of the shinobi world to have power at a lower shinobi position.

If Naruto was unable to gather the power he wanted honorably, then he did not deserve to have that power at all. He would find a way to gather the power he wanted and unite all shinobi under one banner.

_'That's why I'm no longer interested in the Hokage mantle. If I can ascend to a position of power, I might leave the Hokage but it will be as a figurehead and not as a true position of power. Perhaps there will be no need for Daimyo's after all?'_

Naruto pondered that thought. He made a mental note to check into how things would work without Damiyo's. Naruto knew what they were and while many thought of them as figureheads, Naruto knew that they were actually power people.

Naruto began to walk back to his apartment to attempt to get some sleep; he would need it since the missions would begin tomorrow. He would likely be unable to sleep but it was worth trying, because trying never hurt anybody.

**(The next morning, Hokage's office)**

The three fresh genin that many thought was one of the future great teams of Konoha (mainly because of Sakura's perceived intelligence and Sasuke's lineage) along with their jonin-sensei Kakashi Hatake were waiting to receive their first mission. Kakashi had been dreading this part because all genin teams received D-ranked missions. These D-ranked missions were usually mundane tasks that most above chunin would kill themselves for doing repeatedly but they did have a purpose.

"I believe that this is Rookie Squad 7 reporting for their first mission, correct?" asked the Hokage with a smile on his face. The Hokage mantle might be a tough position but he enjoyed seeing the rookie teams before and after their first missions.

"Yes Hokage-sama, we are here for our first mission and potentially others for the rest of the day." Replied Kakashi, not looking at the Icha-Icha booked that he often carried.

"Good, now before I tell you the mission, I'm going to explain to you how missions work. This is important information, so it's better to listen the first time and not forget later." The Hokage stated, as all the genins became rigid, Kakashi meanwhile didn't change at all. He had already heard this from the Hokage.

"We have four types of missions in this village. A, B, C and D ranked. Those with A-ranking are for Jonin and ANBU, these are usually dangerous missions. B ranked missions are for both lower level jonin and higher to middle ranking chunin. C ranked missions are for middle to lower ranked chunin and D ranked missions are for genin."

"D-ranked missions are for genin so they can get their bearings on how missions work and what they might entail. Konoha does not let genin go any higher than D-ranked missions except on special occasions. As you increase your rank in our shinobi force, you will increase the level of difficulty in missions to match your skill." The Hokage finished his explanation with those final words.

"Do you have any questions about shinobi operations?"

"I have one." The reply came from Naruto.

"Yes Naruto, what is it?" the Hokage replied, a bit shocked that the boy had a question.

"So what are the ranking barriers for? I understand that the level of difficulty increases, but if you wanted to test shinobi in question for promotion then why you not send them with a higher ranking officer to see if they are ready for that next step?"

"**NARUTO! Are you questioning the Hokage's methods?**" Iruka shouted, who was present for the new genin receiving their missions.

"No, I am just asking a question." Replied Naruto quietly. He was downtrodden that Iruka-sensei would shout at him in that manner when he wasn't his student anymore.

"Iruka, I see his point but it is for the maximum efficiency of this village. If we don't earn any money off the missions then our village and military force will collapse. We put the rigid barriers there to assure that the village can make the maximum amount of profit." Stated the Hokage.

_'Naruto has a decent argument but it would not be financially sound. I am proud of him that he would have a question about the system. That shows critical thinking, a trait that Minato would be proud of.'_ Thought the Hokage.

"Now you are ready for your first mission, which will be to catch the rogue cat Tora. This is a picture of the cat missing; this is a D-ranked mission. It is important that you retrieve the cat within 2 hours of receiving this mission; do you understand and accept the mission?" The Hokage stated from behind the mission table, which had a number of missions in scrolls.

"Yes we accept the mission Hokage-sama." Stated the team leader.

"Excellent. You have the proper equipment for this mission, dismissed." With that, the four shinobi went out the door and began their mission to find the rouge cat Tora.

**(Woods outside of Konoha, 45 minutes later)**

"The subject in question has been captured." Stated Sakura, as she was holding the cat. Sasuke wanted nothing to do with the cat and every time the cat was close to Naruto, it would begin hissing and scratching anything that held it.

"Does the cat have a ribbon on its ear?" stated Kakashi through his microphone.

"Affirmative." Replied Sakura with a smile on her face.

"Well done team, let's go back to the Hokage tower and receive another mission for the day." Kakashi replied with an eye smile, of course his students couldn't see it because he was a distance away from them.

**(Later that Day, training ground 4)**

Naruto Uzumaki had been dismissed for the day from his team. They had done a total of 2 missions that day before the Hokage told them that he had no more D-ranked missions for them. The Hokage also stated that they would receive more missions in the future but today was an introduction and the other new genin teams had to receive their 2 missions.

Naruto didn't care, he still was thinking about how he would be able to move onto a C-ranked mission. He thought the rules were stupid about mission making.

_'Maximum efficiency? Pah, as if. I realize that the Hokage has to run the shinobi force as a business but maximum efficiency isn't happening. If there were a Hokage with sense, we would be going on a C-ranked mission right now. If we were not fit to engage the enemy, then Kakashi would be able to take them out easily. He is a high ranking jonin and I've heard the rumors about this team being his final piece to receive the mantle of Hokage.'_

Naruto laughed at what just appeared in his head despite it being very morbid thoughts.

_'Actually, I would prefer somebody like Kakashi-sensei to be the Hokage. He wouldn't do anything and leave the work to his superiors. Just think about it, all the control would be to the superior and he would be a figurehead. A perfect pawn to control people.'_ Naruto smiled at how Kakashi would be as Hokage.

As glorious as those thoughts were, Naruto realized that he was at this training ground to train and not to think about the future and potential destruction of Konoha at the hands of the copy-nin.

The training ground that Naruto currently was located at was somewhat of a wasteland. The grass was brown and dead, there were mounds of dirt everywhere and there were also no signs of animal life. It was the perfect training ground if you were to train ninjutsu for the day.

Naruto continued his previous jutsus and was unaware of his surroundings. He didn't realize that another shinobi was entering the training ground and not happy that somebody was training there.

"Ahem" a voice behind Naruto made a noise.

Naruto turned around to see a woman with purple hair tied in a ponytail. The woman had a tan trench coat with a black fish net shirt, a short burnt orange/brown skirt and standard shinobi sandals with shin guards attached.

"Can I help you?" Naruto said, he was a little intimidated to say the least, this woman appeared as if she was his senior by at least 10 years, if not more. Naruto came to the logical conclusion that she easily outclassed him in rank.

"I was going to train here today, I have some jutsus to refine. Can't you use another training ground to play shinobi in?" replied the elder shinobi. Naruto flinched at the tone the woman was talking in.

"Excuse me but, I'm not playing shinobi, I'm just a young genin and I'm trying to master a C-rank technique here." Replied Naruto, he was looking around for escape patterns in case this had gotten ugly. He was confident in his abilities; he could evade some jonins in the past and the villagers when they got mad.

"Oh some hotshot genin thinks that he is great because he knows a C-rank jutsu!" the woman stated as she laughed.

"Well let's see that C-ranked technique gaki." She then stated after laughing.

Naruto frowned, he didn't like the nickname and he didn't like being mocked. Being mocked was something that he did not take a liking to. It felt insulting plus it hurt some of his pride, even though he was only a lowly genin.

Naruto ran through some hand seals before saying the jutsu name.

"**Futon: Daitoppa**"

The gust of wind behind Naruto grew and shot throughout the training ground with high velocity. The wind picked up some of the mounds of dirt and sprayed them across of the training ground. Naruto looked at the woman with a scowl on his face, he wanted to see the look of surprise on her face.

It was not meant to be, Naruto saw the woman have a sheepish look on her face. She looked at him and held a straight face.

"That's decent, about 75-80% of it's effectiveness, keep working and you might get it one day in the future." The woman was not impressed because she knew somebody who used that jutsu and that was one of his favorites to use. It was perfect every time that he used it too.

Naruto looked at the ground, he was angry with the woman but he wasn't going to do anything rash. He looked around at possible escape routes from the training ground and he reasoned that he could get away from the female but he didn't know how long he could. He reasoned that if this woman was chasing him, he would have to be constantly on the move, and that was not worth it to Naruto.

"I'm sorry for how I acted. I've been having a bad day. I'd really appreciate if you gave me the training ground gaki, and I'm saying that in a nice way. The name is Anko."

"I'm Naruto, apparently I'm just somebody who is trying to play shinobi."

Naruto went away rather quickly and Anko laughed a bit at his joke before starting her training session. Naruto knew to leave, Anko would have crushed him in a battle and being a shinobi for the first day, he'd rather leave in one piece.

**(Naruto Uzumaki's apartment)**

Naruto was not very happy about the first day of his shinobi experience. He was assigned to mundane missions and then he was mocked by a higher-level shinobi although that shinobi tried to be friendly later.

_'Stupid people, why the hell do they think it's funny to always make fun of me?'_

Naruto scowled as he thought of ways to become stronger so he could crush them all.

_'No, I can't think of that. Gaining power never accomplished anything when paired with revenge. If I want to unify people, I can't just take revenge on everybody who wronged me.'_

Naruto continued lamenting about how people seemed to not like him at all. It was incredibly frustrating to have to do things all on your own. The Hokage had supported him but he lacked the father and mother figure that every child should have.

_'Being an orphan, yes it teaches you about things in the world and how not to take anything for granted, however it's incredibly hard. Look how many people I have in my life.'_

Naruto wanted to break down and cry about it but he could not muster any tears to flow down his whiskered face.

_'I have nobody, absolutely nobody. I have a new team and that's about it. The Hokage provides the essentials for survival. I thought Iruka was there to support me and he starts yelling at me as soon as I ask a question. It's important for shinobi to gather as much information as possible yet he does not want me to speak up.'_

Naruto was a confused person who did not know who he could trust and turn to in times of need. This was deadly for anybody who was above the rank of chunin but one could possibly get away with it on a genin team, you needed skills to protect yourself in certain situations.

**(1 month later)**

Rookie squad seven had been taking D-ranked missions on a regular basis. Training had come along as well. Naruto had continued to work on his ninjutsu and while they were progressing, he still felt like he was not to full potential. He worked every day to make sure that he was somehow improving but some days he hit a wall that he couldn't overcome. There were only so many days you could improve a jutsu when you don't have much improvement to get.

The villagers and shinobi force pushed him to do better. He knew that there was no dream without hardship. He knew that every ounce of training he put into these jutsu would lead to his dream. The dream of unity continued to push him. The ironic thing is that Naruto was willing to give to society what he could never has a child; the very society that Naruto hated with a passion for the wrongs that they did to him and similar individuals.

Naruto had been extremely reclusive over the past month. He didn't have any run-ins during the past month with anybody outside of the Hokage and his team. He could not muster much courage after being shot down by people twice in one day. Kakashi had reasoned that he was scared of people for what they had done to him in the past and develop some avoidant behaviors as advised by some people with knowledge of psychology.

_'It's absolutely wonderful that I drew a team with a fangirl, a boy that is avoidant and would not talk if he had, and a power hungry boy with an inferiority complex'_ Kakashi mused as he was waiting to receive a mission with his team.

The other two members of the team were progressing along as well. Kakashi had seen some flaws with Sakura's taijutsu and corrected them before any bad habits were molded into her fighting style. Sasuke mainly was training by himself but had not added any new ninjutsu to his training style.

The Hokage began speaking and all members of the team paid their respects to the Hokage by listening to him.

"By special order, this team has received permission to accept, if they choose, a C-ranked mission."

The three young shinobi instantly went rigid and there was anticipation flowing through their bodies at finding out this bit of information. Kakashi's eye went open for a split second before maintaining his natural composure; it was even a surprise to him that they were going on a C-rank mission.

"Now you will not be the only one going on this mission, there will be another shinobi going with you."

The door opened 15 seconds later as the woman that Naruto knew as Anko entered in the room and stood besides Kakashi.

"Wait, you said I was going with another jonin but these gakis are coming along too?"

Anko nearly face planted as the Hokage nodded the affirmative with a smile on his face.

"Hokage-sama, why am I doing C-ranked missions again?" asked Anko to the Hokage.

"Anko you are not fully a jonin yet. Therefore we still place you in the chunin bracket. The mission is overstaffed but there is an underlying purpose to the mission that is pretty clear."

Anko did not like the answer that she was given but this was field experience for the rookie team in front of her. They were given a period of time to develop some teamwork and now they were thrust into a more volatile situation. She knew that the council likely had some pull on them and developing them quicker. Anko knew by looking at them and their instructor, the team had a lot of potential.

This was also why 1 high level jonin and 1 specialized jonin were present on the mission. To make sure none of these kids bit the dust, although the council probably won't be too mad if a certain one did bite the dust.

"This mission will be to the city just a short distance away from here, Otafuku Gai. There have been reports in the city that some disturbances have been occurring around the town with a local gang. These people are relying mostly on martial arts. However, we believe somebody of chunin level strength is behind the operation. The mission is to engage this gang, find their leader and then bring him back to Konoha to be imprisoned or under your discretion, remove out the threat from Otafuku Gai."

"Are you willing to accept this mission?" The Hokage asked the major question.

Both Kakashi (who gave the response for his team) and Anko (who gave the response for herself) gave their consent to go on the mission.

"Anko, how much time do you need to get ready?"

"30 minutes."

Kakashi turned to his team and gave them an order to be at the gate in 30 minutes. Everybody knew that…

**(1 hour later)**

Kakashi had just arrived for the mission and was met by Anko and Sakura who were not very pleased. Sasuke was scowling because he could have been brooding about the Uchiha clan massacre during this time and nobody knew where Naruto's mind was. He was a great mystery; nobody really got much communication out of him.

"I'm sorry, I had to make sure that Mr. Ukki had enough plant food to last this whole mission. I ran out and forgot, so I had to make a trip to the Yamanka flower shop to buy some food."

Everybody just shook their heads and started to head towards Otafuku Gai.

The trip took longer than usually expected because the genins were becoming accustomed to high-speed shinobi movement at long distances. Sakura was becoming winded every 4 kilometers. After a long period of time, the squad arrived at the destination.

"Alright, first we need to gather intelligence or information on where this gang has a hideout or meeting point. We need to find out what kinds of acts they are doing to the civilians as well." Kakashi stated, as he was designated team leader by the rank.

"We are going to split into two teams, consisting of Sakura, Sasuke and myself and then Anko and Naruto. We will meet back here in 4 hours to decide the progress of this mission and the duration of it."

The two teams split off and walked in different directions. Luckily for the rookies, this was a mission in fire countries territory, so the civilians were friendly to the shinobi, although rumors had spread around about who Naruto was from Konoha. Most of the civilians did not know about what he contained.

Anko immediately headed to a street that she knew she could easily get some information from.

"So gaki, what have you been doing since the last time that I bumped into you. Say what was that, about a month ago?" Anko tried to create some conversation between her self and the boy. She noticed that he was hyperaware of his surroundings. He would look from side to side, making sure that there were no threats to him.

"Training and missions kunoichi-san, that's all that matters right now."

"You know you can just call me Anko-san instead if you want to be formal."

"That would be easier Anko-san."

"We are heading to the pleasure quarter. This town is known for its women and their services."

Naruto nodded his head to give an affirmative. He entered the pleasure quarters with Anko **(A/N: no not that way you perverts...)** to gain some information on this "gang."

**(3 hours later)**

"Now that was not bad was it gaki?" Anko asked Naruto as they were heading back early to the meeting point.

Naruto continued walking with Anko to the point before he gave his answer.

"I do not particularly like that section or to think about the population that goes there. I mourn for those who are hurt by the actions of those who are addicted to those vices."

Anko was flabbergasted at Naruto's response. She thought with Naruto being a hormonal teenage boy that she walked with him through the best mission of possibly his shinobi career and he gives that answer.

"Gaki, we live a life that we could easily die tomorrow if we are met by a greater foe. Due to the stress and apparent death that we could be facing, shinobi often give into pleasurable vices to relieve some angst or anxiety. It's perfectly natural to use vices as a relief when you are a shinobi. Over time, I'm sure that you will develop vices and use them as well." Anko replied, trying to help Naruto imagine the shinobi lifestyle.

Naruto and Anko reached the point where they would be meeting the rest of the team without speaking another word. It wasn't until 5 minutes of waiting at the point that Naruto finally replied.

"Anko-san, there is one thing you said that I don't agree with."

"What's that gaki?"

"To relieve the stress of possibly dying, just become better than the best."

"So you think you can be the best? Only one person gets to claim that at the current moment. The best is the Hokage, so you think you can be better than him one day?" replied Anko.

"With aspirations like that, you must know that there is a high probability of failure." Mentioned Anko, she did not want to deter the kid's dream but it was a long shot at best.

"I do not think about failure. I think about the present, my dream and how I'm going to become stronger." Naruto chimed in. He turned his back to Anko and went to meditate under a tree.

Anko was beginning to annoy him. She was just like the rest of the villagers that stated that he would never amount to anything. Naruto knew that he had to get stronger to gain redemption and build what he wanted.

**(30 minutes later)**

Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura arrived breaking the concentration of Naruto who was still meditating and Anko who was fiddling around with her kunai.

Kakashi was the first to speak.

"I believe that we should reserve an inn for the night, we are going to be staying here for at least one night if this is true. When we get to the inn, we can discuss the information."

That information led the team to wander around the town for a period of time before reserving an inn for the night.

**(Later that night at the inn)**

The entire team was gathered to discuss the information that was given to them by the residents of Otafuku Gai.

"Apparently there have been many different incidents about robbers and thieves around the pleasure street. There are at least 3 different robbers but apparently someone overheard about a ringleader who is powerful." This was the information that the team leader gave.

"We didn't get much difference on the information although one person said that they were mugged by 2 people and they stole everything he had. The conversation centered around something about a leader before he passed out. These people just want a good time and it ends in disaster for them." Anko stated after she compiled both Naruto's information and her information although Naruto didn't stray very far away from her during the information-gathering period.

Naruto chuckled after Anko made that last sentence. Anko glared at Naruto and Naruto immediately quieted down. Naruto was embarrassed that Anko had to pull rank like that in front of his teammates.

"The plan should be to send someone out to watch the city tonight and see if they can spot any attacks for the time being. I think that I should be the person who goes out, as I look like a suitable target."

"Not a chance with that face mask on. I can appear like I'm a prostitute, after all I don't dress much differently than them." Anko replied, trying to keep Kakashi away from the streets. If he saw that many women scantily clad, he might blow his cover and ruin the whole mission. It was Kakashi's one major weakness but it emerged in this mission.

"As much as it pains me to do it, I have to agree with Anko. My mask would likely give it away. I could make a story about being burned but the attackers would be prone to avoid me out of paranoia about possible shinobi status." Kakashi replied, he was depressed that Anko created a counter argument. He knew the mission but he wanted to see some women instead of reading about them.

"Alright, I will scout the streets tonight and see if any suspicious activity happens. If I see something then I will make sure I figure out what happened and where the attackers go. I'll try not to engage unless attacked, I don't want to walk into a trap." Anko stated.

"Anko, I think you are going to have to leave the coat here." Kakashi stated, he had a very perverse smile on his face under the mask.

"Not a chance Kakashi, believe it or not, this actually adds to the mystique. It comes with me." Anko replied. Kakashi's smile went down after she made this comment.

The three genin knew what the conversation was pertaining to but none of them made any advances to enter the conversation. Sakura was thinking some perverse thoughts but would rather keep it to herself although it involved somebody on her team.

Sasuke knew that reviving the clan was part his reality but he would not even attempt that until he vanquished the earth of Itachi. His reality included that the woman that he procreates with is procreating with the last Uchiha. As much as Sasuke would not like to admit it; until Itachi was no longer living, he was not the last Uchiha.

Naruto did not care at all about the conversation. People did not like him for some reason, so he could not even make the connection about having sex with another human. He reasoned that even if he did manage to find another woman and settle down, she would eventually grow tired and leave him or be unfaithful behind his back. People could only take so much of Naruto Uzumaki.

_'I need to remain connected to the world through a powerful position but still remain distant and disconnected from the world personally. What good would it do if I had all this power and the people still hated me? I would just be a tyrant and everybody would hate living. That can't happen, there would be no peace and unity among the people. Yes there would be unity against me but then the shinobi nations would plunge into anarchy.'_

Kakashi and Anko dismissed the three genin into their gender-separated rooms and they dispersed. Sakura tried to talk to Sasuke but he blew her off instead.

**(The Boys room)**

Naruto and Sasuke sat in silence as each was doing something individually. Both were completely spaced out thinking about their ideal world. Sasuke then moved around the room and looked at Naruto.

"Hey Naruto"

Naruto was in a trance for a few more seconds before he looked at Sasuke and nodded.

_'Apparently that means I can continue to talk to him'_ thought Sasuke to himself. He knew that Naruto was somewhat strange but not this strange.

"Does this feel somewhat exciting, this C-ranked mission. We finally are going to be doing things that we should be doing as shinobi."

Naruto stared at Sasuke who had a smirk on his face as he thought of potential missions after this.

"Sasuke, we need to focus on this mission. We are likely facing people above or at our level of strength. We need to watch out for Sakura as well."

Sasuke was shocked at first; this was as many words in a single conversation that Naruto spoke since the day when they introduced themselves.

"I suppose you are right. Sakura is basically useless, although she is training right now. I'll give her that, she's still annoying." Sasuke said as his smirk turned to a scowl. Sasuke had a bit of an itch to train but the city environment provided no place to train.

"I agree" were the only words that Naruto said to Sasuke before Sasuke decided to retire for the night after Kakashi came back.

Kakashi and Sasuke both went to sleep and in the other room Sakura was sleeping while Anko was preparing to go into the main street.

Naruto was meditating and decided that he would go outside to catch some fresh air before he even made an attempt to go to sleep. The best-case scenario would be that Naruto got roughly 3-5 hours of sleep. The meditating staved into the potential fatigue of not being able to sleep. Naruto opened the door and locked it behind him and leaned against the railing, looking out at the city lights and the night sky.

Anko was in the other room and heard the other door open. She decided to jump onto the roof to investigate. She had a kunai in hand in case of an enemy shinobi but saw blonde spikes and could vaguely see a black shirt due to the nighttime.

Naruto turned around to see Anko on the roof. He realized that she probably thought nobody was awake at this hour of the night. She leapt down from the roof to stand next to him and look out at the night sky. She was all but 100% prepared for the mission; she could be out the door any minute. She had a few more precautions and she was ready.

Naruto turned to Anko and saw that her hair was down since the hair tie and hitai-ate were completely gone. She was also missing the belt pouch that she used to both keep up her skirt and hold her kunai. Naruto knew that she still likely had 2 kunai on her and they were likely hidden in a position he didn't want to know about.

"What you lookin' at gaki?"

"The sky obviously..."

"Oh trying to be smooth and mysterious with me. You are quite the character of this team. It's nice to see something different than an emotional Uchiha and a desperate fangirl of the Uchiha."

Naruto did not say anything. He didn't want to speak too badly about his teammates even though he did admit to Sasuke that Sakura was useless.

"So what's with the silence and one word answers? That is not going to get by in the shinobi world. You can't always summarize everything in so short of sentences."

Naruto paused and looked into the sky at the moon before answering 15 seconds later.

"I have nothing important to share with people. So what's the point of creating extravagant stories?"

Anko knew the reason about the village and how he would avoid people that hated him. She was trying to open up to him in a way to show that there were people with compassion that could care about him. She did not want a complete emotional attachment because of the distance, but to be acquaintances would be nice. From what she knew of him, he did not get enough interaction. She shared a similar past to him, and that's probably why she was being compassionate when she wouldn't be usually.

"Why are you up so late? I bet the other two are sleeping. If you are worried about me, I'm a big girl and I can handle myself quite fine. I can beat 95% of the shinobi population in head to head battles."

_'Head to head battles? Life isn't always head to head, that's why we are put in teams.'_ Naruto thought to himself and was going to say that to Anko but then remembered the last time he tried to give input into a higher ranked shinobi and decided to avoid that comment. He kept the conversation going after that time despite there being a long pause in between Anko's statement and his answer.

"I can't sleep."

Anko smirked and remembered how some shinobi could not sleep on their first mission outside the village because it was so exciting. It took Sakura a while to finally go to sleep but she knew Sasuke was more reserved and had prior experience with higher-ranking shinobi.

"Many shinobi can't sleep due to the excitement of being out of the village for the first time. I'm sure that it's no different for you, but try to get some sleep because it is good for your body. I have to go now it's getting late. Ja ne."

Anko opened the back window and slipped into the female's room and then left through the door after locking it. She passed Naruto and headed down to the main streets where activity was sure to be buzzing. Many people wanted pleasure when going there, Anko wanted the opposite for certain people. She wanted them to only feel pain.

Naruto meanwhile, looked at the sky before unlocking his door and attempting to go to sleep.

_'Anko has no idea why I can't sleep, and it's probably better off that way.'_

**(The next day)**

Naruto only had about 2-3 hours of sleep but the meditation for the rest of the time made sure that he was alert and ready for the next day. Sasuke and Kakashi awoke at roughly 6 AM to check on Anko.

Anko arrived back to the motel at 4 AM and wanted a few more hours of sleep before she woke up and gave the information. In that time, rookie team 7 explored Otafuku Gai while she slept. They made sure to check potential locations for attacks and different escape routes.

After all, if one were to go into enemy territory and attempt to defeat them they would have to know the terrain, right?

This was the important lesson that Kakashi was trying to teach to his team. He knew that the only battles they had ever had were in Konoha. They knew the Konoha terrain because they lived there for their whole lives so they naturally had an advantage regardless if they were facing a fellow Konoha shinobi but it was multiplied when facing an enemy shinobi.

"That is how you can lead a stronger shinobi into a trap. When you think you are beaten, you can try to improvise and use the terrain to your advantage. It will lessen the gap in power and you could possibly pull out a victory in what was once a bleak situation" ended Kakashi on why they were here.

Kakashi knew that Anko did not necessarily have to come with them because she had been out for the previous 4-5 hours exploring the main street. If she was not exploring the terrain while looking out for potential suspects, then she did not deserve her title as Tokubetsu Jonin.

"Alright team, I think it's time to head back to headquarters and let's see if Anko is awake. If she isn't then I think it's time for her to wake up."

**(The Inn, 15 minutes later)**

Anko had woken up 30 minutes prior and was making sure that there was no sleep deprivation from a shorten rest cycle. She determined there was nothing as she had complete focus. She knew that they would need it for this mission, as they were in enemy territory and against an unknown foe.

Anko gathered around a table set in the boys' room and was ready to discuss the information given. The day was nearly half over and they were already running out of time to potentially complete this mission.

"This is what I found out last night…" and with that Anko began on what she found out from her night in the most popular street in this city.

The abbreviated version that Anko told is that there was group of 2 younger children who were doing the assaults and battery that would force the citizens to hand over their money and any other valuable possessions that they had on them during the time of the crime.

Anko had also stated that she heard that the younger children would attack the weakest targets they could possibly find. That included the elderly tourists and young children without families or that are wandering around lost. There had been one death that was not publicized due to the backlash that could occur. The 2 children had taken the life of a 6 year old orphan that was lost.

Anko also found out that there is a ringleader in place that was either a former shinobi or currently a shinobi. A few people said that they have seen glimpses of him when the younger kids are overpowered or mess something up. He doesn't wear a hitai-ate on his head and has brown hair. The citizens made it sound like he was at least chunin level.

Kakashi began formulating a plan; they would all hit the streets tonight. Kakashi would be watching from above. Kakashi also reasoned that they would send out the weakest looking person to try to draw a target. Kakashi debated potentially sending Sasuke or Naruto but eventually decided that Naruto had that duty because the kids or the ringleader would know who Sasuke was. Naruto despite being a jinchuriki did not have much of a reputation outside of Konoha. Most people in fire country had learned about the Uchiha massacre and how Sasuke was the last Uchiha.

Anko would also be on the streets for a second consecutive night. She would be watching over Naruto and his movements for the night.

The plan, at least capture one of the younger children and torture them until they spilled the name of the leader. The children could either be turned over to authorities but since they participated in the murder of a child, it would be better to exterminate them.

Anko was also in place to make sure that Naruto used no ninjutsu if he was attacked. The last thing the team needed was a large burst of chakra to scare all of the villagers. It was also determined that the ringleader would also attempt to attack Naruto when the mission was going south. Kakashi or Anko would provide defense for Naruto.

Naruto was essential to the mission; if he could get the children to spill the name of the leader then they could set up a plan to capture him later. If he makes the ringleader come out, then he Kakashi or Anko could subdue the ringleader and imprison him in Konoha. The potential of death could be eminent considering the three shinobi have no idea who their attacker is or if they want to engage in battle.

**(Later that night)**

The team was ready. Kakashi originally had no plan for what Sasuke and Sakura were to do but they were to assist him in whatever possible facet he needed it. Kakashi also thought it would be a good learning experience for them to see a mission leader in action and because their recon ability might be lacking.

Naruto had left his hitai-ate at the room, Kakashi had informed that both Anko and Naruto had to not wear theirs tonight for fear of easy identification.

Anko then showed Naruto into some of the previous attack locations and some of the dark alleyways that they could use to bait the younger children into attacking him. Naruto was told to add a bit of a gait to his walk to appear weaker than he did in his regular walk. The tiniest sign of weakness could tell these children and potential untrained eyes to attack.

**(A dark alleyway)**

Naruto was limping around as if he had a foot injury and suddenly movements were heard behind him. He turned around and was met with a kick to the chest from a person of similar stature to him. Naruto bent down and another kick was heading his way from above but Naruto swept the opponent off their feet and to the ground.

Naruto backed up towards the light of the alleyway as another person attempt to throw a high punch; Naruto ducking under it and hitting the opponent straight in the sternum.

The person gave a loud groan of pain and bent down. Naruto took the child and threw them towards the light. The person's back hit a wall and made a loud thud in response. The light exposed the child and it showed that it was roughly a male child of 10 years old.

Naruto heard the movements of the person behind Naruto, as they were getting closer. Naruto turned around and elbowed the person in the gut and slammed their head into his knee. He dragged the now unconscious body of the child into the light and exposed a child of roughly 12 years old. Naruto heard another presence drawing near but Anko rounded the corner. The presence attempted to attack Naruto from behind but was met by a kick from Anko that sent the presence backwards. The presence immediately disappeared and retreated afterwards.

"Good job Gaki. I'm really impressed with how you made it seem like you were injured and wandering around for help."

Naruto just grunted as he lifted one of the children and Anko lifted the other. Anko and Naruto were joined by the rest of the team that was watching, as they went back to the motel rooms.

The team used the least trafficked ways to bring the children back to the room, as to not alert the public what was potentially happening. Kakashi smiled, as he knew that learning the terrain was beneficial in the mission and he hoped that his young genin would take it to heart.

**(The boys' room)**

Anko had injected some tranquilizer that she was carrying to the children to make sure that they would not wake up and escape as they were trying to sleep. Being part of the torture and interrogation department had its perks!

Kakashi had decided that himself and Anko would rotate on watch duty to make sure that their friend who did not decide to make his presence known would not try to show up and take the children back.

**(The next morning)**

The presence from last night had not decided to make his presence known again and left the children in the possession of the team formed for this mission.

The team had decided that they would take the children into the woods and interrogate them to keep them away from the regular civilians.

The motel that the team had picked was fairly secluded from the main streets, so it was naturally easy to get away from Otafuku Gai easily. Once the team was a mile or so away from the city, they woke the children up and began interrogating them. Anko was the interrogation specialist, so they would lean on her for the interrogation process. The rest of the team would watch.

"Are you feeling alright? Or is the tranquilizer still having effect? "

"No, I'm just sore all over." The younger child answered

Anko smiled at that and looked over to Naruto. Naruto's face remained apathetic but Anko believed she could see some red in his face.

"I know. The gaki did a good number on you guys."

"Fuck off and let us go." The older child responded.

"I believe that I can't do that, possibly if you give us some answers."

"Alright" the younger child responded.

"No don't do that, they are tricking us." The older child told the younger child.

"Do you see any other ideas of how to get out of here?" the younger asked the older.

"No…" the older child responded as he trailed off.

"If you are done arguing, I would like to know who you work for?"

The younger child looked down and then responded.

"We work for a man by the name of Kaito Tanaka. He used to be a chunin for Konoha but he never told us why he left the village. He still wears what you have on that represents Konoha. He told us that if we ever got captured that he would leave the village and that we would have to fend for ourselves because we were failures." The younger child finished.

"Kakashi, do you know anybody with that name?" Anko asked Kakashi, she wasn't on the best terms with most shinobi and kept mostly to the jonin of Konoha.

"Yes, I remember that he was found to be in violation of treason and was banished from the village. I don't exactly remember what he was he was found to be guilty of treason. I'm not surprised he did not wander far from the village. I have no reason to see why this boy would be lying. He gave us information that nobody in this village would know. Tanaka likely has left. We will depart for Konoha after we have concluded our findings here. The Hokage will send another team to make sure that Tanaka does not return." Kakashi finished as he began thinking about what to do with these two children.

"So you are going to let us go now?" Asked the older boy.

"No. You guys can argue in the afterlife. May the soul of the boy you two killed haunt you forever." Kakashi stated as he held a glowing light in his hand.

The two children were squirming to attempt to break the chakra concealing ropes. They both had some education with chakra from their sensei but never too much. Enough to usually overwhelm city dwellers and tourists that were perverts.

Kakashi ran to the boys and decapitated them with the Chidori, the heads of the boys bouncing into the air and then landing on the ground. They had been executed as murderers.

Not one eye from Kakashi or Anko was batted. Kakashi knew that he had to clean himself of all the blood before arriving back to the village. Sakura was on the verge of crying. Sasuke did not look any different than before and Naruto had a certain gleam in his eye that could not be totally identified.

"Kakashi-sensei, why did you not let them go? They cooperated with us and were only children." Sakura nearly yelled at Kakashi as tears were on the verge of spilling out and onto her face.

"We are shinobi Sakura. They had killed a child, I checked with the local police enforcement earlier and this case had been unsolved but had been determined that two children killed the orphan. The seeds of evil had been built in their heads, it was going to take over eventually." Kakashi replied.

_'That was disgusting'_ Sakura thought. Inner Sakura mentioned that they had it coming.

_'…one day that will be what happens to Itachi. I will impale him with power like that.'_ Sasuke thought to himself, he had to find out what jutsu that was.

_'They disrupted the peace of this city. They had what was coming to them. This prevented the unity of this city, even though I don't agree with this city's main profession.'_ Naruto thought.

Naruto realized what they were as shinobi and he smiled. It was the perfect trade for him. He was not completely a Konoha shinobi in his opinion; he would eventually gain some discretion and become what he always wanted to be. He just had to bide his time, and he would eventually be…

**_'A vigilante.'_** Naruto thought as he smiled at the future. For the first time, it was bright

**_End of Chapter 3. Thanks for reading._**

* * *

That's all for the third chapter. I'm already working on the fourth chapter. This will be the main story that I'll be working on. I tried to get my other story out there to see how many people truly liked it and I see why a lot of people didn't. It doesn't bother me, I enjoy this process of writing. This is fun to play around with.

Every 4 chapters I'll be doing Q&A so leave some questions you want me to answer and I will. I'll be doing any questions that are messaged to me in private or that were left as a result of a review. Hope everybody enjoyed this chapter.

-Anhedoniac


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